The Path of Destiny
by Racingwolf
Summary: A growlithe sets out on a quest to save her homeland, and with the help of a jolteon, scyther, and other wild pokémon, she searches for help, but all the while an enemy follows her, waiting to strike. And a much greater danger lurks, threatening them all.
1. The Beginnings of a Journey

_(Author's Note/edit: As of now (August 2012), I'm going through the old chapters and correcting typos and such, and will be steadily fixing errors and updating old chapters as I see fit.)_

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 1-The Beginnings of a Journey**

An icy cold wind blew fiercely across a vast rocky mountainside, bringing with it snow and ice that coated the jagged spurs of rock that jutted out from the mountain peak. The strong chilling winds filled the frigid air with their soft mournful howl, drowning out all other noise in the desolate landscape.

The great snow-capped mountain loomed over a wilderness of icy plains and rugged grasslands, snow covering almost every inch of its rocky surface. Massive ice-covered shards of dark-colored rock loomed over immense canyons and crevices, creating steep and perilous drops at almost every turn. All that could be seen was rock and snow; there was no sign of life.

The strong winds lashed down mercilessly across the mountainous wasteland, sending snow and hail flying in all directions. Clouds obscured the sky, eclipsing the mountain in almost complete darkness.

Yet…there was sign of life after all…

Padding carefully across the pale snow and ice was a pokémon. And, even more strangely, this pokémon was a growlithe; a young one. But even stranger still, the puppy pokémon had a strange coloration. The growlithe's fur was as white as the snow she walked across so effortlessly, every bit of her coat the same sparkling white, save for the pale gray markings of her stripes. The growlithe lifted her head to the sky momentarily, showing no sign that she felt the cold. Lifting her paw again, the pokémon continued her short journey. Increasing her pace to a sprint, she seemed to glide over the ice and snow.

Near a large slab of dark gray rock topped with snow a little ways away, another snow-white growlithe sat waiting. The pokémon's thick fur was fluffed out against the wind and his eyes were half-closed as snow swirled around him. As the first growlithe approached, he spoke. "The others have been waiting."

"I'm sorry," the female growlithe whispered, shuffling her paws. "Am I…am I the last one here?"

The male growlithe bared his fangs slightly, disregarding her question as he spoke. "Do you have any idea of the importance of this meeting? Our leader has important news that every growlithe must know, Snowcrystal. Now hurry!"

The young growlithe called Snowcrystal carefully trotted around the rock's base, until she came to a small crevice in the side of the rock. Slipping inside, she was followed by the growlithe who had been waiting for her. The two of them crawled through a narrow and dark tunnel to emerge into an immense underground cavern. All around the walls of the cave were stone ledges, where several other growlithe sat, looking down at a group of youngsters who were scuffling on the cave floor, sending small embers into the air every once in a while. Stalactites covered the ceiling that arched over their heads, and the walls were studded with luminous crystal shards, all glowing a pale red. In fact, it was from those very same crystals that Snowcrystal had gotten her name.

Once the two arriving growlithe had taken their place on the cave floor, the growlithe sitting on the highest ledge stepped forward. Eyeing each of the growlithe seated below him in turn, the leader prepared to deliver what could only be bad news. "Growlithe of the Ice Mountain," he began, "Our land has been changing much in the past year. The ice is melting, and the houndour tribe has now claimed the lands that were once ice and snow. Many things have changed since Articuno left our mountain. I fear that in this time, we must adapt, and become like our cousins, the orange-furred growlithe that hunt in forests and plains."

This statement was met with shocked cries, and one growlithe called out, "But Icefang, we aren't like other growlithe-we cannot live in warm climates as they can."

"There must be other lands of snow," another cried. "Maybe we can search for a new home!"

"I think we should send someone out to search!"

"And who's to say that someone would even make it back?"

"Well what should we do? Move every growlithe, young and old, into strange lands without knowing what lies beyond?"

The leader growlithe, Icefang, sat calmly on the high ledge as he listened to the others' cries. He had anticipated this. "Listen," he called to those down below, "on clear days one can stand on the mountain at any point and view the land around for miles. Have you seen any other mountains? No. We may have to adapt to strange places. If we are to survive we must leave before the snow melts completely, or the houndour tribe will drive us out themselves. We will need to learn to hunt in forests and plains, and live in the warmer lands, at least until our travels lead us to a new home."

The growlithe down below glanced nervously at one another. To most, the news of moving the entire growlithe tribe was nothing new; there had been lots of rumors about it before. All the same, it was startling to hear that it would soon actually be happening. Still, most of them were doubtful that they could survive in such strange territories beyond what had always been their home. There was a reason the houndour tribe was taking the growlithes' territory as the snow melted; the land further on was little more than a barren wasteland, though from the mountain, a growlithe could see what looked like a large forest beyond that. However, no one was sure what lurked there, and if the houndour tribe had no interest in moving to that forest, it couldn't be an ideal territory.

The young growlithe Snowcrystal listened as the members of the growlithe tribe argued back and forth. It was apparent that they were wondering how soon they would have to leave, where they would go, and just how far the houndour who lived in the plains near the mountains would go to claim their home.

Snowcrystal knew that until recently, the growlithe and the houndour had for the most part left each other in peace, each having their own hunting grounds and lands to call their own. However, she also knew that hunting was difficult in both habitats, and the houndour had been taking over what once had been frozen plains for themselves. The melting of the snow seemed so strange and unnatural, that the only explanation anyone could give was that the odd occurrence was happening because Articuno had left the mountain.

No one had understood how or why, but the great arctic bird who had once protected them, shielding their lands from enemies who happened to stumble upon the mountain, had one day flown from the ice mountain and off into the distance. Several growlithe had seen it, but they didn't think it that unusual until a long time had passed, and Articuno had still not returned. When the snow started to melt in the plains surrounding the mountain, the growlithe had almost immediately blamed it on the disappearance of the legendary bird. Some were worried that without Articuno's protection, humans would stumble upon the mountain. The growlithe had heard from traveling pokémon, mostly flying types, of trainers and the way they greatly valued pokémon of unusual color. To Snowcrystal, white growlithe were normal, but according to the travelers, humans had never seen or heard of them before.

For a while, Snowcrystal had tried to believe that Articuno hadn't abandoned them, or that the ice would stop melting, but it all seemed as if they really had been left to fend for themselves. It all seemed as if Articuno, the one who'd helped them survive for so long, had really gone from their land for good.

But what if there was a reason for it? Ignoring the other growlithe, Snowcrystal stood up and called to her leader, who was still trying to reason with the tribe, "What if someone went to search for Articuno?"

Snowcrystal was immediately aware of all eyes focusing on her. Icefang spoke to her calmly, "I am afraid Articuno has probably left of his own free will. If that is really the case, there is nothing we can do to bring him back."

"But what if there's a reason Articuno left?" Snowcrystal cried back, hardly noticing that the cavern had become suddenly silent. "What if he can't get back? What if he needs our help?" The young growlithe had thought these things over many times, but until now, she had never really thought about doing anything. After all, these thoughts had just been guesses, but now it seemed like their only hope of being able to hold their claim on the lands they called home.

"Well, we still have a lot of our territory left," Snowcrystal continued. "We have time. I could search for Articuno, and if I don't find him, then yes, we will have to leave, but we can't give up just yet! Besides, taking the entire tribe into unknown territory is dangerous, especially for the young ones! There are humans and strange pokémon further on; we all know that this is one of the few places humans don't travel by."

Icefang sighed. He admired the young growlithe's courage, but he knew there was very little chance that she would discover Articuno. "We cannot rely on mere guesses and ideas for something this important, Snowcrystal. Finding Articuno would be a near impossible feat."

"But I could still try!" Snowcrystal protested. "I've never been to the lands beyond the snow, but I'm not afraid! One growlithe leaving now would be better than moving the entire group without knowing what's out there. Besides, the tribe won't have to move for a while longer, so it still gives us time! And…and if you don't approve, I'll go anyway!"

This last remark was received by disapproving glares from many of the surrounding growlithe. One was not to speak to a leader in that way. However, Icefang did not seem angry. "Very well," he stated at last, his voice betraying no emotion. "No one can stop you if this is what you truly want. We still have a while before we must move to new territory, and in the meantime we must all discuss what we are to do." He turned to the rest of the tribe, addressing them. "I understand that you are worried about this news, but I have thought over this for a long time. Unless Articuno returns and replenishes our land…" he paused, almost wanting to say 'whether or not it was his fault at all', "I'm afraid we will have to leave…" He glanced over the solemn gazes of the growlithe crowding the cavern and sighed. "We will discuss this again starting tomorrow night…"

After Icefang finished his small speech, the growlithe slowly left the cavern in stunned silence, the thought of loosing their home devastating. However, a few of them looked hopeful, giving Snowcrystal encouraging glances as they passed through the narrow tunnel.

At last, only she and Icefang remained. The larger growlithe walked over to her, looking at her with a serious expression. "I hope you understand just what you're getting into if you choose to undertake this mission."

Snowcrystal gave him a small smile. "I don't know what I'm getting into," she told him, "but whatever happens, I'll do whatever I can to find Articuno."

Icefang nodded in reply. He knew that the growlithe he ruled over were far from weak. They thrived in the frigid mountain climate, and in the icy plains below. A growlithe had great endurance, able to travel across the mountain many times in one day without getting tired. "I know you will," he told the young growlithe, "but you must remember everything you've learned. Every survival skill you posses will be vitally important. And also…"

The leader's voice trailed off as he leaped up the stone ledges to his own place at the highest one, vanishing into a small cave behind it that was nearly hidden by the rock. A moment later he reappeared, holding a bright amulet in his mouth. Attached to a string of tough plant fibers, a single glowing red crystal blazed brightly. Leaping gracefully to the ground, Icefang presented Snowcrystal with the gift, setting it down reverently at the young growlithe's paws.

"This amulet was given to me by my mother, the growlithe leader before me. I was told to pass it down to one who has done great service to the tribe. At the time, I believed it meant that I must give it to the next leader, but now, I believe I should let you keep it."

"But…I have not done anything yet," Snowcrystal replied, giving the leader a confused glance.

He smiled. "You are very brave to undertake a journey for the tribe like this, Snowcrystal, and I know that if you mange to convince Articuno to return, he will be able to restore our home to the way it was. There might not be another leader after me if our tribe cannot adapt and separates, and I'd much rather send this amulet with the one hope that we may be able to keep our old lands."

"T-thank you," Snowcrystal began, astonished. She was surprised that the leader had put so much faith in her, when she knew her quest was going to be a long and difficult one, if it was even possible at all.

Carefully, Icefang bent down and picked up the amulet, placing it around Snowcrystal's neck. "Who knows?" the leader chuckled. "It may bring you good luck."

Snowcrystal smiled. "Maybe…" She glanced toward the rocky tunnel and replied, "I must leave as soon as possible. Thank you for your gift, but I must begin my journey."

Icefang nodded again. "I understand…" As Snowcrystal turned to leave, the older growlithe whispered, "And may Ho-oh be with you…"

**-ooo-**

By early morning, the clouds that lingered above the great mountain had thinned out, and the wind had died down a bit. Padding carefully through the snow, Snowcrystal turned and glanced back at the mountain she had left, knowing that if she failed, she may never see it again. Still, she knew she had to try, and she was determined to one day return…along with Articuno.

Turning back to the way ahead, the growlithe failed to notice the group of pokémon who were crouched down in the sparse grass near where the snow plains ended not far away. As Snowcrystal passed by without a glance, a dog-like pokémon raised his black and red head over the thin blades of dried grass.

The houndour seemed puzzled. Turning to his hunting companions, he whispered, "It's one of the growlithe…what's she doing so close our lands?"

"I dunno, Fang," one of his companions, a houndour whose muzzle and belly fur were a dark orange color in contrast to the first one's red, replied, "but she doesn't look lost…she's heading somewhere with a purpose…but what would that be?"

The first houndour, Blazefang, narrowed his eyes as he watched the white shape walking so calmly over the snow. Turning to the speaker, he replied, "I don't know…but this is strange…I don't like it…"

"I don't understand, though," a third houndour barked, speaking up for the first time, "what do we have to worry about a stray growlithe? Looks like she's heading away from our lands as well as the mountain; it's not like she's planning to take part of our territory."

"I've got a bad feeling…" Blazefang muttered, "I want to know what's going on. Wildflame!" he turned to the houndour who had first spoken her opinion. "Go and find Darkclaw. I want to know if the growlithe are planning anything."

Wildflame nodded, and headed off. Lowering their heads, the other two followed, making hardly a sound as they slipped into the shelter of the tall grass, vanishing as if they were never there.

**-ooo-**

Darkclaw the murkrow was a well-known spy among the houndour tribe. He had already alerted the tribe to the fact that the growlithe were possibly planning on leaving if their snowy habitat continued to shrink. The houndour came to him whenever they suspected that the growlithe tribe might be planning a move against them, and he gladly accepted their requests, for the price of a rattata or two.

As the group of houndour approached his favorite tree, Darkclaw flew down toward a twisted lower bough, facing Blazefang. The murkrow ruffled his black feathers as he alighted on the branch, giving the group of houndour a curious gaze through narrowed eyes. The tough houndour smiled as the murkrow landed. "Darkclaw," he began, "I need to know what's going on at the growlithe's mountain…"


	2. New Allies

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 2-New Allies**

By nightfall, Darkclaw had returned. Blazefang had been waiting by a big jagged stone that was only flecked with snow. Wildflame and his other companion, a young houndour named Boneclaw, were also crouched beside the large boulder.

The murkrow swooped down low toward the ground, landing on the topmost point of the rock. Folding his wings, Darkclaw looked down as the three houndour gathered below. He began speaking, "I managed to hear two growlithe talking. They say the one with the crystal shard has gone to find Articuno, so he can restore the land they've lost. Of course," he added, noticing the houndour's angry expressions, "She has little chance of actually finding that pokémon."

Blazefang sighed. He knew the trials the houndour had faced in the past years. Food was becoming scarcer, and they needed every bit of territory they could get. For reasons unknown, the wasteland surrounding the lands of houndour and growlithe had always remained barren, devoid of any sign of life. Very little plants existed there, and no prey. The only way the houndour could gain more territory was by claiming the parts of growlithe land that no longer suited the needs of the white dog pokémon.

"But she's still got a chance," Blazefang muttered, uprooting a clump of grass with his claws, "And what if Articuno does return? He was always fair to us, but…well, we need more territory!"

"I wouldn't worry," Darkclaw smirked, "It is a fool's journey this growlithe is undertaking. She will probably end up dead."

"I still think our leader should hear about this…," Blazefang muttered.

"Well then tell her!" smiled Darkclaw, "But of course, if it bothers you so much, then why don't you just follow the growlithe and kill her?"

"I need to talk to Firedash about all this," Blazefang growled, "Maybe you're right…maybe there's nothing to worry about…but I still don't like it!"

* * *

Firedash was the proud leader of the houndour clan. She was unevolved, like most of the houndour and all of the growlithe, but she was tough and vicious, respected by all those of her clan-evolved or not. The leader made her home in a rocky cave, much different from the caves on the icy mountain.

It was this cave that the trio of houndour, led by Blazefang, approached hesitantly. Their leader's moods were unpredictable. The three stopped warily at the entrance, and it was Blazefang who at last entered the cave and called his leader's name. He was almost at once greeted by the sight of the small but dangerous houndour approaching him from the darkness.

"Firedash," Blazefang murmured respectfully, dipping his head, "Darkclaw has brought us more news of the growlithe clan."

Blazefang had caught Firedash in a good mood. The houndour smiled. "Well…what has our murkrow friend found out this time?" she asked calmly.

Blazefang quickly explained what he'd learned, and Firedash listened intently. After he was through, the leader replied, "If the growlithe believe that Articuno will help them, then why wouldn't he help us? What if you were to find the arctic bird first?"

Blazefang exchanged confused glances with Boneclaw and Wildflame. "Me?" Blazefang repeated, "Find Articuno?"

Firedash chuckled. "Not just you. The growlithe were foolish to send but one traveler. I shall send many. The growlithe that left may have some idea of where Articuno is. I want you to follow her, Blazefang. Articuno always looked out for both growlithe and houndour in the past. If you can convince him that we are the ones who need the territory more, then he shall help us. Now Blazefang, I will select other houndour to follow you. I'm appointing you leader of the traveling group."

Blazefang, despite his confusion and fear, managed a smile. Leader…he liked the sound of that. "Yes, yes of course, Firedash," the houndour replied, smiling, "We'll follow the growlithe!"

"Good," Firedash nodded, "Now go. Wait by the berry grove. I will select the others to accompany you soon." Blazefang nodded as he, Boneclaw, and Wildflame left, leaving the houndour leader alone. Firedash smiled. If Blazefang could convince Articuno to come back and help them himself, then all their problems would be solved. And if Blazefang failed…well, the snow in the growlithe's territory was still melting.

* * *

Night had fallen over the dusky brown wasteland, leaving Snowcrystal exhausted. Her normally pure white fur was now filthy from the dust that was constantly being blown through the air all across the rocky landscape. It was warmer here, but Snowcrystal knew she didn't have to worry much about the heat. Her kind survived in the snowy habitats because of the internal flame that kept them warm. When it got warmer, that flame died down a bit, to prevent the growlithe from being overheated. However, white fur was easy to spot where there was no snow, and Snowcrystal did not know how she would be able to hunt. She decided that when she reached the forest that lie so distantly ahead, she would look for some berries.

While she wasn't worried about traveling through warmer climates, she knew that it was no place for pokémon who were adapted to living in lands of snow. Her kind were used to hunting in their own terrain; it would be quite a challenge to learn how to hunt anywhere else. Their bright white fur would make it incredibly difficult for even a skilled hunter to stalk prey through a forest. Not to mention that, although the heat wasn't an immediate danger, it was very uncomfortable. Also, it didn't seem as if there would be a place for the entire clan of growlithe in a strange forest filled with strange pokémon.

Looking around, Snowcrystal could see a large group of rocks the color of mud a little ways away, and beyond that lay the forest far off in the distance. Snowcrystal had been traveling from the snowy plains all day, and still the forest appeared no closer. Feeling a need to find shelter for the night, Snowcrystal headed for the mud-colored rocks.

The moment she reached them, the growlithe lie down against one, feeling exhausted. She had caught no prey in the wasteland, and was beginning to wonder if she'd ever make it to the forest. The only water she'd had that day was from a small half-frozen stream in her own territory.

"This is going to take longer than I thought," Snowcrystal whispered to herself, "I sure hope I can-"

A sudden noise from the rocks above her startled the growlithe out of her thoughts. Leaping up, Snowcrystal glanced up at the large jagged boulder, seeing a few pebbles roll down its side. Snowcrystal suddenly felt afraid. Anything could be lurking behind these large rocks at night; just because the place was said to be uninhabited didn't mean it was true.

Creeping slowly around the base of the nearest rock, Snowcrystal peered around, soon finding herself staring through a labyrinth of huge boulders. Carefully she crept further along, looking for what had made the noise from before. Common sense should have warned her to stay away from the rocks where an enemy could be lurking in the shadows, but Snowcrystal was too nervous to think clearly.

As she passed one rock after another, she began to get a strange feeling. The place seemed…eerie… All the rocks now looked black in the darkness, and since the tallest ones loomed overhead, they blocked out most of the sky. Just as she was about to turn back, Snowcrystal heard a loud screech, and then something cannoned into her with such force that she was knocked into the side of one of the rocks.

The creature was bigger than she was, though not by much, and its fur had a spiky, rough texture. Kicking out with both paws, Snowcrystal sent her opponent rolling away from her. The pokémon jumped up, then darted at her again, using what she knew to be quick attack. As the stranger collided into her again, Snowcrystal blew a small ember in its direction, but it twisted out of the way, its fur barely singed.

Snowcrystal stood up, trying to summon up a more powerful fire attack, when the strange pokémon stopped a few feet away from her. Electricity crackled over its spiny fur, lighting up its face and allowing the young growlithe to see its bared fangs. Sparks flew from the pokémon, illuminating a small bit of the area around it and casting strange shadows against the tall rocks.

Now that she could see it clearly, Snowcrystal recognized the pokémon from some of the stories told by the members of the growlithe clan. It was an evolution of eevee, though she couldn't remember the name. Was it sparkeon? Jolteon? Shockeon? Though she was confused as to why this pokémon was in a wasteland, she didn't have much time to think. With a growl, it ran towards her, firing off a blast of electricity that left the rock behind Snowcrystal singed as she leaped out of the way. Turning to face the pokémon, which she was now sure was called 'jolteon', Snowcrystal crouched down as she prepared for its next attack.

Then another voice behind her made her jump in surprise and fright. "Spark, what are you doing? Can't you see it's just a growlithe?" Snowcrystal whipped around, as another pokémon approached, also a strange pokémon to be seen in a wasteland. The second stranger was bigger than her and the jolteon, and looked much more threatening. It was a green bug type, with large claws on its feet, and a long, slightly curved fang sticking out of each side of its mouth. Four large wings fanned out from the pokémon's back, but it was the pokémon's arms that Snowcrystal couldn't stop from staring at-for part of the creature's arms were made up of a long, lethal-looking silvery-white blade, wickedly curved and deadly sharp. It stood much taller than Snowcrystal, and despite not wanting to seem afraid, the growlithe backed away.

Like jolteon, scyther was a pokémon Snowcrystal had heard about, though the stories she had heard about scythers hadn't been good, usually depicting them as killers and murderers. It took a moment for Snowcrystal to realize that, unlike the jolteon, this scyther was making no move to attack her, and was simply looking at her with a calm expression. Apart from its physical appearance, there seemed to be nothing threatening about this pokémon. Snowcrystal relaxed slightly. After all, he seemed to disapprove of the jolteon's attack.

The electric pokémon also relaxed, and muttered, "One can never tell who's an enemy in this place…"

"Well I think it's easy to tell that this pokémon isn't," the scyther told the jolteon sharply, "She obviously doesn't live here. She must be a traveler, like us."

Snowcrystal noticed the scyther looking at her with a slightly confused expression, as if he wasn't sure why she seemed so afraid of him. She turned to the jolteon. "Who are you?" she asked quietly, "What are you doing in the middle of this wasteland?"

"I could ask you the same question," the jolteon muttered, but after receiving a disapproving glare from the scyther, he quickly muttered, "We're just travelers…don't really have much of an idea where we're going actually. My name is Spark. Trainer named me…" he added in a whisper, and then motioned with his head toward the scyther, "And that's Stormblade."

"Wait…" Snowcrystal whispered, "You had a trainer?"

"Yes, we both did," the jolteon answered, "We ran away. Oh, no, he wasn't a bad trainer. Never abused us. We just…wanted to be wild again." Stormblade nodded in agreement. Snowcrystal began to think that there was a bit more to it than that, but she didn't question them further. "We've been wandering around for about three weeks now," Spark continued, "We even found a forest, but Blade just wanted to move on. Said it was bad or something." Spark cast an annoyed glance at Stormblade, then continued, "It even had plenty of fruit trees, and all sorts of berries. I've never seen a forest that plentiful in food before. It made me wonder why there weren't any pokémon there, at least not any that we saw."

"That's what I didn't like about it!" Stormblade muttered, "And didn't you see that human town? There were pokémon traps and poisoned food all over the place! We were lucky there wasn't any in the forest itself."

Snowcrystal began to feel a little doubtful about entering the forest, but if there was food there, it really was her best choice. "Well I'm going there anyway," the growlithe said stubbornly, "And if I were you, I wouldn't be heading toward the plains by that mountain. You won't get a warm welcome."

The jolteon and scyther glanced at each other, then back at Snowcrystal. "Well you didn't tell us why _you're_ here," Spark growled, obviously still suspicious.

"I have something important to do," Snowcrystal told the two pokémon, "I'm looking for a legendary pokémon, Articuno. You haven't seen him have you? Or even heard of where he might be?"

Stormblade looked surprised and Spark only scoffed, "_Seen_ the legendary Articuno? Who do you think we are? We're just a couple of ordinary pokémon!"

"Look, I just need to find him, and I can do it too! Someone must have seen him or knows where he went," Snowcrystal argued, "He used to live atop that mountain, but he disappeared. I've gone to look for him…my clan will be in… grave danger if I don't find him and convince him to come back to the mountain." She finished her sentence a little uncertainly, not really wanting to go into much detail.

"You're going to look for Articuno all on your own?" Spark replied, sounding a little less arrogant than before, "I hate to break it to you, but there's very little chance you'll actually find him, let alone get the chance to speak to him…" He peered closely at the growlithe, and the crystal she wore around her neck. "It's strange…" he mused, "I've never seen a white growlithe before…I thought all growlithe were orange!"

Snowcrystal couldn't help but laugh. "All of us orange? Of course not! Sure there a lot of orange growlithe that live in forests and plains far away, but there are many white ones too." She sighed, "I guess not a lot of pokémon know about us. It's for the better I suppose." Snowcrystal was beginning to feel safer among these other two pokémon, even if they were strangers. By now she was certain she had nothing to fear from them, even if Spark didn't seem to want to trust her so quickly or easily.

"You know," Stormblade began, "Maybe we can help you look for a while. After all, we're looking for a new home, and you're looking for something too. Maybe we can look together. After all, we'll have a much better chance of survival if there's more of us."

"Look, I don't know…" Spark mumbled, "We don't even know her…"

"That sounds like a great idea," Snowcrystal interrupted, "We'll help each other. It'll be much easier that way."

Spark scowled, clearly angry at being voted out, and Snowcrystal sighed. "I understand if you don't trust me, but there's not much I can do to hurt you, so you're pretty much safe," she added with a shrug.

Spark glared back at her. "I'm not afraid if that's what you're thinking!" he growled.

"Sure seems like it," Snowcrystal replied with a smirk. "Now," she added, addressing Stormblade this time, "I assume you came here to rest? Well I did two. We should stay here for the night then continue on in the morning."

Stormblade agreed and the three settled down beside the rocks, though Snowcrystal noticed that Spark was still glaring at her, though he now seemed more annoyed than wary. Snowcrystal shook her head softly as she curled up against the base of a rock, thinking over the past events. The scyther seemed nice, and the jolteon didn't seem that bad either, even though he didn't seem to want her to come along.

After a while of lying down and trying to sleep, Snowcrystal began to get the same strange feeling she had had upon first reaching the rocks. She stood up and peered around, though the only source of light in the area was from the small but bright red glow of her crystal. The area had started to seem creepy again, and she had first thought that the feeling must have come from Spark watching her from the rocks before. She glanced over to her right, and a few yards away, the jolteon was sleeping peacefully.

Still a bit unsettled, Snowcrystal stood up, deciding to act as a lookout for the group for a little while. Carefully climbing one of the massive brown rocks, Snowcrystal was glad that she was used to that kind of thing. Back at the mountain, there had been many times when she'd had to climb over rocks. Once she reached the top, she could see over most of the jagged stones, but somehow, it made the whole place seem creepier.

For a while, she sat on top of the rock, watching the area or peering up at the stars and moon every once in a while. Despite her fear, she was beginning to get drowsy, and found it harder and harder to keep awake. Just as she was debating whether to climb down and go to sleep, a small flicker of movement caught her eye. Instantly alert, she gazed around, but saw nothing. Thinking she should warn the others, Snowcrystal started to climb down.

Suddenly something knocked her completely off her feet and over the edge of the rock. Snowcrystal's startled scream woke Stormblade and Spark, and the scyther was the first to take action. Quickly darting underneath Snowcrystal so to soften her fall, he glanced upward at the rock, seeing a strange pokémon floating in midair.

Snowcrystal rolled onto the ground, not seriously hurt, thanks to Stormblade. She and Spark looked up as well. The pokémon who'd fired the attack was not one Snowcrystal had heard of, but Stormblade seemed to recognize it. It was a small grayish purple ghost type pokémon with eerie yellow eyes. Snowcrystal heard Stormblade mutter the name 'shuppet'. Beside her, Spark started to tremble slightly. "This place must be haunted," the jolteon whispered.

Stormblade was just about to make a reply, when several other ghost pokémon of various types and species materialized around them all at once. Snowcrystal could hear Stormblade whispering some of their names as he glanced around, "_Misdreavus, ghastly, duskull…_"

Spark seemed to have overcome some of his fear. "Ghosts can be hit with electricity," he whispered, "A thunderbolt ought to do the trick!"

"Wait, shouldn't we-" Snowcrystal began, but she didn't have time to finish. Crackling electricity surged from the jolteon's fur and into the air, hitting several of the ghost pokémon. For a moment they seemed ready to back off, then even more ghosts appeared, surrounding the three pokémon.

"Heh heh…oops…" Spark muttered sheepishly.

"'Oops' is right…" Stormblade growled quietly.

The ghosts moved closer, every one of them glaring at the three travelers. Snowcrystal backed up against a rock, staring from one enemy pokémon to another.

"This…isn't good…"


	3. Into the Dark Forest

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 3-Into the Dark Forest**

"What do we do now?" Snowcrystal whispered, looking hopefully at Stormblade and Spark.

"We fight of course!" the jolteon growled, glaring from one ghost pokémon to another.

"We can't fight them all," argued Stormblade, "But I think I have an idea." As he and Snowcrystal backed up toward the other rocks, the scyther whispered something to Spark. The jolteon nodded and fired off a large blast of electricity; not large enough to hit all of the ghost pokémon, but enough to create quite a lot of light...

"Now run!" Stormblade yelled, and nudged Snowcrystal, who was practically blinded by the bright electric blast illuminating the dark area. The growlithe stood up and ran, unwittingly in the opposite direction of where Spark had just bolted. Instead, she was headed further into the maze of jagged rocks.

Snowcrystal let out a cry of terror as more strange pokémon appeared out of thin air around her-all ghost types. Shaking with fear, she glanced around for Spark, but the jolteon was nowhere to be seen. She could see clearly again, but obviously Spark's attack hadn't stopped the ghost pokémon for long.

Before she could try to fire an ember attack, a shadow punch from one of the enemy pokémon sent her skidding across the dusty ground. Feeling her back hit one of the rocks roughly, Snowcrystal struggled to stand. A moment later, she had to dash behind the rock as several various attacks hit it at once, and she could feel the rock shudder slightly from the impact.

Deciding it was best to run rather than stay and fight, Snowcrystal took off, hoping it would be harder for the ghosts to hit her as she dodged between the rocks. However, the problem was that the ghosts' attacks were able to move through them, and Snowcrystal found herself running madly through a seemingly never-ending maze of jagged brown stone.

Glancing left and right, Snowcrystal tried to locate a way out, realizing that although her kind were naturally fast, ghost pokémon were everywhere, appearing around every corner.

A shadow ball attack out of nowhere sent her crashing to the ground. Her crystal amulet was sent flying from her and landed a few meters away, glowing softly. As Snowcrystal struggled to stand up, a green blur darted in front of her. Quickly realizing it was Stormblade, she managed to get to her feet, watching as the scyther pointed with his blade to the left, indicating where she should run.

Snowcrystal took off just as Stormblade struck a haunter with night slash. She had only gone a few yards when she suddenly turned back, remembering the crystal that had been left lying near one of the big rocks. Sending up puffs of dirt as she turned around without stopping her run, Snowcrystal ran towards the amulet and quickly picked it up in her jaws before heading in the direction that the scyther had indicated.

It wasn't long before she had cleared the rocks, and was out in the open. Stopping to try and locate the others, she realized that the ghosts weren't following her. Some of them glared at her eerily from the rocks, but they did not venture beyond. Snowcrystal shuddered as she carefully slipped the amulet back over her neck. A moment later, she heard approaching pawsteps and turned to see Spark limping toward her.

"What's the matter? Are you hurt?" Snowcrystal asked, worried. The jolteon's front leg didn't look too badly damaged, but he was hardly putting any weight on it, and he seemed to be having a bit of trouble walking.

"Nah, I'm fine," Spark muttered, shrugging, as he sat beside Snowcrystal, "A bunch of those ghosts tried using these weird attacks on me, and one of them hurt my leg a bit, but it's nothin' serious."

Snowcrystal was glad that Spark seemed less hostile, but she still had no idea if Stormblade was all right. However, she didn't have to worry long, for the scyther soon flew from the direction of the rocks and landed beside them. He cast a worried look back at the ghosts and Spark assured him that they didn't seem to want to venture past the rocks.

Snowcrystal glanced fearfully at the ghost pokémon who stood watching them, and remembered how Stormblade had tried to fight them. "Are you all right?" she asked him, not sure whether or not he'd been injured in the battle.

"Yes," answered Stormblade, "I'm not hurt. It seemed like those attacks were more for the purpose of scaring us away than actually injuring us."

"I beg to differ," Spark muttered darkly, starting to lick his injured leg.

"It could have been a lot worse," Stormblade replied, "With their numbers, they could have killed us, but they didn't. Though why they're guarding those rocks I have no idea."

Snowcrystal sighed. "Well, let's get going. We're going to have to make it to the forest soon…"

"Don't worry…it's not as far away as it looks; it just seems that way. We should make it by tomorrow," Stormblade told her, "But remember, the forest isn't safe. We'll have to be careful."

Snowcrystal nodded and the three headed off, sleep forgotten, as one by one the ghost pokémon disappeared into thin air.

* * *

Blazefang now led a group of about twenty houndour, not including himself, Boneclaw, and Wildflame. The somewhat small and inexperienced houndour now felt important and entirely in charge of the group who'd been chosen to seek out Articuno and follow Snowcrystal.

It had been fairly easy for the group to follow the growlithe's tracks, and being fire types, the lack of water was not overly worrying. All the same, Blazefang was eager to reach the forest up ahead, where finding food and water was far more likely. Though they had traveled much through the night, the nocturnal pokémon were getting tired, and at last Blazefang decided to let them rest a bit.

"All right everyone, let's stop for a while. Try and get some sleep," Blazefang called to the others, "Me, Boneclaw, and Wildflame will be lookouts."

One houndour gestured with his head toward a large group of rocks in the distance. "Why don't we rest over there?" he asked, "Instead of just lying out here in the open?"

Blazefang rolled his eyes. "'Cause me and these two will be able to spot any danger over a long distance from here," the leader muttered, "How could we do that if we stop by all those big rocks, huh? And don't you think some other pokémon, some _unfriendly_ pokémon, might be thinking the same thing? To take shelter by the rocks? And what if they found us shelterin' there? What then, eh?"

The houndour who'd made the suggestion fell silent, turning away from his leader as he curled up on a patch of dusty ground. "Right," growled Blazefang, "I'm the leader here an' I give the orders, alright?"

The other houndour mumbled something inaudibly. "What was that?" inquired Blazefang, "Speak up!"

"All right!" the houndour replied reluctantly, and Blazefang smiled, nodding in reply.

"That's right!"

* * *

By the time the first rays of sun began to shine on the distant horizon, the forest appeared to be much closer to the three travelers. "Well, at least we're getting somewhere," Snowcrystal remarked to Stormblade as she studied the group of trees ahead. The scyther nodded and the two walked on, Spark following at a short distance. However, the jolteon was limping a lot less, and Snowcrystal was relieved that the injury hadn't been serious.

The group had no trouble from wild pokémon, spotting only a sandslash or a cacnea here and there. These pokémon neither approached nor threatened them, and the travelers left them alone. Now that it wasn't so dark, the going was much quicker, and Snowcrystal could almost forget the ghost's pokémons' attack at the rocks in her excitement to continue the journey.

It wasn't much longer before the three travelers came upon the outer fringes of the forest. Spark even came across a small stream near the first group of trees, allowing them to take a drink and rest briefly before carrying on.

As they began to make their way through the winding paths of the forest, with Stormblade in the lead, Snowcrystal began to notice a few things. First of all, she now realized that Spark had been right; there was no sign of any other pokémon, no natural forest noise. No scurrying rattata in the undergrowth, no chattering of sentrets in the trees, no birdsong, nothing. Second of all, the further they traveled, the darker the forest became, even though it was daytime.

They hadn't been traveling long when Spark spotted a group of berry bushes up ahead. Though it wasn't as good as freshly-caught prey, Snowcrystal thought the berries tasted delicious, though she figured it was probably just because she was so hungry. Strangely, Stormblade had been completely quiet since entering the forest except for the occasion brief warning about some low-hanging branch or tree root she and Spark were likely to step on or run into. Even now, he stood a little ways away from the others, not moving or glancing in their direction. He had not eaten anything, despite the vast amount of berries that grew plentiful in the area. This struck Snowcrystal as extremely odd, considering he couldn't have found much to eat in the wasteland, but she didn't question him.

After Snowcrystal and Spark had eaten their fill, the group carried on, though after a while of wandering through semi-darkness, Spark suddenly hissed at Stormblade, "You have no idea where we're going! Why don't you just fly over the trees and find us a way out?"

Stormblade seemed a bit surprised, as if he was wondering why he hadn't thought of that. "Oh…right…good idea…" he muttered before taking off.

"Why didn't he try that before if he was so lost?" Snowcrystal asked, giving Spark a puzzled look.

Spark shrugged. "I guess he's just paranoid about all the traps we saw earlier. I don't see what the big deal is. After all, he can FLY! _And _see well in the dark."

"Do you think he knows something about this place that we don't?" Snowcrystal mused, pawing at her crystal amulet.

"If he did, he would have told us, that much I know," Spark replied. The two sat in silence for a while until Stormblade returned.

"This way…" he mumbled quietly, and the others followed. Stormblade led them through more winding paths, deeper and deeper into the darkening forest, increasing his pace until Spark and Snowcrystal had to sprint to keep up with him.

"Hey Blade, wait up will ya?" called Spark from behind, and as if in answer Stormblade stopped dead. At first Snowcrystal thought that it was Spark's shout that had made him stop, and then she heard a faint sound that gradually increased until she could make out the pounding of hoof beats. Snowcrystal was about to ask Stormblade what he thought it was, when dozens of dark shapes suddenly bolted past beyond the trees to the left side of them.

Stormblade ducked down, and Snowcrystal did likewise, peering at the pokémon as they thundered by. They were large pokémon with long, slender legs, and what looked like antlers on their heads. Snowcrystal suddenly recognized what they were even through the gloom-stantler. Stantler herds would often pass through her territory, and though they were good prey, she had never hunted one. It took an entire pack of growlithe to bring one down, and only the most experienced of hunters even tried. Now, Snowcrystal was only concerned with watching them, and as the last of the stantler vanished, Spark whispered in a confused voice, "That's odd…me and Stormblade didn't see any other pokémon when we passed through here the first time."

"Well it's a big forest," Snowcrystal replied, standing up straight again, "And from what you've told me, pokémon probably just want to stay away from that human place."

"Ah well," sighed Spark, "It doesn't matter, besides, they're only stantler, I mean-" He immediately quieted as one of the deer-like pokémon emerged from a nearby bush, seeming to be completely unaware of them. Snowcrystal took a step toward it and its head swerved towards her. The look in the stantler's eyes seemed to freeze her to the spot, but she found herself staring not at the pokémon's head, but its antlers, which had seemed to glow faintly.

Snowcrystal stiffened as the forest grew darker and the trees closed in all around her. All at once the place had become scarier, and all the trees seemed to tower over her even more. Then the thundering rumble of hoof beats came again. Shaking her head to clear her vision, Snowcrystal shouted, "They're headed this way!"

The stantler who stood in front of Snowcrystal suddenly charged past the group, leaping over a few bushes and vanishing into the darkness. Then from the bushes ahead, the rest of the herd came charging towards them.

Spark glanced at the stantler briefly before running to the side and heading for the nearest cover. Snowcrystal realized that the herd wasn't going to move out of their way; in fact, it looked as if the stantler _wanted _to trample them flat. Snowcrystal started to sprint toward the shelter of some nearby bushes as Stormblade spread his wings and flew out of the stantlers' path. Snowcrystal was starting to think that perhaps the scyther had been right to be worried.

Just as she was out of the herd's way, a group of stantler suddenly swerved towards her, lowering their horns as their hooves pounded closer and closer. Snowcrystal suddenly found herself tangled in a bush's thorny branches. There was no time to run. She closed her eyes.

And nothing happened.

The growlithe slowly opened her eyes, seeing stantler running past her on either side, their horns still lowered. However, those in the center were running right through her. Confused, she glanced around, seeing Spark crouching down near some bushes, his eyes shut tight. Snowcrystal managed to untangle herself from the bush, and slowly padded over and nudged him. "Spark!"

The jolteon's eyes were still closed. "What's going on? I can still hear them!" Snowcrystal nudged him again, and Spark backed away in shock as he glanced around.

"What the…they're running straight through the trees!" the jolteon whispered, glancing around in confusion.

"Wait a minute…" Snowcrystal mused, "I remember something Icefang, that's our growlithe clan's leader, said about stantler. Even just one of them can sometimes create illusions of a whole herd, or at least that's what he said. I only just remembered it, and I wouldn't have believed it until now."

"But why would a stantler do that to us?" Storm asked, still seeming a bit shocked as he watched the very real-looking stantler herd running straight through trees and rocks.

"We're predators…I guess it felt threatened, though there's no way I could have attacked that stantler. I can barely use fire attacks as it is. Or any other attacks for that matter," she added with a hint of embarrassment.

After a few moments, the last of the stantler illusion faded, and Snowcrystal could see things clearly again, and the forest looked normal. The illusion, or whatever it was, seemed to be wearing off. Spark and Snowcrystal walked over toward Stormblade, who emerged from behind a couple of trees. "Stormblade," Snowcrystal began, "It was an illusion, there really weren't that many-"

"I know, I saw them. But wait, listen!" Stormblade whispered, peering into the bushes. Snowcrystal was about to reply when she heard a faint cry sounding from somewhere nearby. Stormblade headed toward the noise, with Spark and Snowcrystal following closely behind. The three of them emerged into a small clearing. Snowcrystal could scent another fire type, as well as the fainter scent of something strange, something that wasn't pokémon. As she gazed further into the gloom, she realized that lying in the center of the clearing, was a small, caged vulpix.


	4. Blazefang's Discovery

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 4-Blazefang's Discovery**

The trapped vulpix hadn't noticed Snowcrystal and the others yet, and was sitting in the middle of the small cage, facing away from them. Snowcrystal could tell it was crying. Approaching the small pokémon, the growlithe tried to sound as friendly as possible. "Don't cry," she whispered, "We're going to try and get you out of there."

To her surprise, the vulpix whipped around, her eyes glaring. "Do you think I'm crying because I'm stuck in a cage?" she snapped, "No! I'm crying 'cause the humans took my fire stone! Do you have any idea how _long_ I've been waiting to evolve? I finally found a fire stone, right in the middle of this forest! I finally got my chance and they took it away!"

Snowcrystal stared back in confusion, and Spark cried out, "What do you mean you just found a fire stone and they took it? If you'd touched it you would have evolved!"

"I didn't get the_ chance_ to touch it!" the vulpix spat, "I found it lying by those rocks over there, and as I was running toward it this human suddenly appeared and picked it up! I bit his hand to try and make him put it down but another human came and put me in this cage!" She angrily paced around her cage, then lay down again, growling, "I hate humans…"

"Not all humans are bad," Stormblade told the strange vulpix, "Though if these ones put you in a cage, then-"

"I didn't ask your opinion!" the vulpix shouted, baring her teeth.

"Look, do you want our help or not?" Stormblade replied, tipping the cage slightly with the dull end of his scythe. The vulpix leaped forward and sank her teeth into Stormblade's arm, above the blade. Stormblade shook her off, and let the cage fall back in place. "Do you want me to find out how to open it or do you want me to try and cut through it with you in it?" he growled impatiently, "Stay still!"

"I don't think she wants our help," Spark muttered, watching the vulpix, who was now growling at the scyther, "Maybe we should just leave her alone."

"We can't just leave her here!" Stormblade argued.

"Stormblade's right," Snowcrystal agreed, "We'll help her whether she wants it or not. Now, let's see about this cage…"

"I can get out of here any time I like!" the vulpix snarled, "If you want to help me, go get my fire stone back!"

"Why should we?" Spark questioned, walking toward the cage until he was face to face with the vulpix, his fur stiffening into sharp spines, "You should be grateful we're offering to help you get out of that cage! We're not going to follow those humans to try and find a fire stone for you."

"Then leave me alone!" the vulpix retorted.

"If we leave you here, those humans could come back, or you'd just be stuck in here until you died of hunger," Spark muttered flatly, "There's no way you can get out of there by yourself. See that latch on the cage door?" Spark pointed with his paw, "You couldn't open that with your teeth, and you can't even reach it from the inside. One of us can break it for you, though."

The little vulpix fell silent, and Spark moved the latch on the cage's door as much as he could, then allowed Stormblade to cut through it. The door swung open and the young vulpix rushed out in a blur of orangish-red fur. She rushed by the others without stopping, and Snowcrystal called after her, "Hey, where are you going?"

The vulpix turned around and cried, "I'm going to follow the humans' tracks and get my fire stone back!"

"You're going to that town?" Stormblade replied, shocked, "You can't go there! I've seen what it's like-"

"Just try and stop me!" the vulpix spat back, "I'm not afraid! Unlike you!" As she turned to continue on her way, Stormblade flew in front of her, blocking her path with his scythes.

"I'm trying to give you a warning," he said coldly, "Don't go near the town. It's a bad place for pokémon." The vulpix casually pushed the blades aside and walked straight by him. Stormblade turned around and saw the vulpix heading straight through some bushes. Snowcrystal noticed as well.

"Wait!" the growlithe cried, running to the other side of the bushes. The vulpix emerged from the leaves to find herself face to face with Snowcrystal. "We can't let you go out there all alone-it's dangerous!"

"I can go where I want to," the vulpix said simply, "And if I have to go to the human's town to get my fire stone back, I will!"

Snowcrystal sighed, seeing there was no convincing her. "Well, at least let us help you. What's your name?"

"Rosie," the vulpix muttered, not turning to look at her.

"Well Rosie," Snowcrystal began, "Maybe we can help you look for this fire stone, as long as you try and stay away from the town afterward. Stormblade says it's-"

"What? We can't go to the town just to look for a fire stone!" Stormblade cried, as he and Spark caught up with the other two.

"See my point?" Snowcrystal whispered, and then said louder, addressing Rosie, "Listen, if we all go to the town and just look around for the fire stone quickly, will you promise to leave the town afterward, and to just forget about the stone if we don't manage to find it? I can't promise you anything…" She gazed calmly back at the vulpix, who looked back at her as if she was considering it.

"Fine…" she mumbled irritably, turning her head away.

"Look," Snowcrystal stated, glancing at Spark and Stormblade, "If we're careful of traps, it can't hurt to look around, and if we don't find it, you'll be sure to stay away from the human place for good, right?" She glanced at Rosie, who merely nodded reluctantly.

"We'd just better find it…" the vulpix muttered.

"Well, let's go," Snowcrystal announced, "We won't stay there long," she assured the others. "After all," she added jokingly, "I do have Articuno to find…"

"What?" exclaimed Rosie, but Snowcrystal ignored her and turned to Stormblade, who flew off to find the exact direction of the town.

* * *

Blazefang and his group were on the move. The houndour pack had rested during some of the night and most of the morning, and were now nearing the jumble of jagged brown boulders that Snowcrystal had rested at the previous evening. Now that it was light, Blazefang was less wary of the area, and decided that the rocks may have provided some shelter for desert plants. The thought of finding prey appealed to the group, and Blazefang led the twenty-two other houndour to the large rocks. 

Wildflame, the female houndour who'd been a lookout the night before, didn't like the place. There was something odd about it, and she could feel it. Blazefang and the rest were busy searching the place for prey, but Wildflame stayed put at the edge of the rocky area. The way the rocks cast strange, eerie shadows across the ground, even during the day, made her somehow nervous.

Boneclaw was frustrated. "There's nothing here!" he growled to Blazefang, scraping dirt from the ground, "Just a buncha stupid rocks and dust!" He started coughing as some of the dust he'd scooped up with his paw filled the air around him. Blazefang was loosing patience.

"If there's prey anywhere, it's here," he growled dangerously, "We haven't searched the whole place yet, so keep looking!"

"What if we run into something dangerous, like you said?" Boneclaw questioned uncertainly, and as if in answer to the fire dog's statement, a houndour screamed.

Blazefang leaped toward the sound, Boneclaw stumbling behind him as he tried to keep up. The two of them arrived in a small area surrounded by more of the tall rocks. A houndour was lying at the base of one of the boulders. He grinned sheepishly at Blazefang. "Heheh…I fell…"

"Oh for the love of mew…" Blazefang growled angrily, "Quit acting like an idiot and keep looking for signs of prey!"

"Blazefang!" a houndour cried, and the pack's leader whipped around. "Uh…Blazefang…" the houndour repeated, "We found something strange…we think you should come and look!"

Blazefang sighed and followed him, Boneclaw in his wake. "This better be good…" he mumbled. The houndour led his leader to a clear patch of ground surrounded by thin pointed rocks which all seemed to curve inward slightly at the tops, and seemed to be in a strangely shaped circle around the small area of ground. Two houndour looked up from where they were crouching beside some odd-shaped markings in the dust. Blazefang peered at them curiously, before brushing them away easily with his paw. "What was all this about? Some stupid marks in the dirt? I can't believe you actually…hey, wait a minute…"

Blazefang stepped closer to the patch of ground where his claws had scored through the markings. Barely visible beneath one of the claw marks, was the glint of something smooth and shiny…

* * *

Snowcrystal and Rosie headed after Spark and Stormblade as they trekked through the forest in the direction of the human's town. Snowcrystal could hear Stormblade's angry muttering from up ahead. 

"I don't see why the little brat has to evolve…" the scyther was saying, "I never evolved, and I'm never gonna! I don't get what the big deal about evolution is…And now we have to go through all this for a stupid fire stone…What's so great about it anyway? Can't she just be satisfied with what she is?"

Spark was getting very tired of Stormblade's rants. "Hey! _I'm _evolved! So maybe you don't want to. Well, others might. Ever thought of that? Has it ever occurred to you that it might be important for some pokémon? Or are you just still paranoid about the humans? I thought you believed that trainers were there to help pokémon!"

"Not these humans!" Stormblade retorted, "Humans who put poison outside their buildings aren't there to help, they're…"

Snowcrystal rolled her eyes, wishing the two would stop arguing. Rosie had turned suddenly cheerful as they neared the town, prancing about happily next to Snowcrystal as the growlithe followed the jolteon and scyther. "I can't wait to be a ninetales!" she cried cheerfully to Snowcrystal, "I'll have white fur like you, only mine will be more creamy-colored, like a meowth's fur. So, uh…when are we gonna get to the town and get my fire stone back?"

"Hopefully soon," Snowcrystal sighed, glancing at Spark and Stormblade up ahead. Spark had turned his fur spiny again, as he seemed to do when he was angry. "Look you two, stop arguing!" she called over to them, "We'll be fine if we're careful. And this won't take long…we're just going to see if the fire stone's there."

"You've never been to a city or town, have you?" Stormblade called back, "We can't look through an entire town for something that small!"

"We're just going to try…" Snowcrystal replied impatiently, "Just really quickly. It's not far, is it?"

"Shouldn't be…" Stormblade replied unhappily.

"Oh look, what do you know…" Spark called from further up ahead, where he was peering through some bushes, "There it is…and ooh…looks soo scary!"

Rosie darted up beside Spark and confirmed his statement. "He's right! I see the buildings! Let's go!" Stormblade and Snowcrystal made their way through the bushes to see a large group of buildings up ahead. Snowcrystal stared wide-eyed, having never seen anything remotely like them before.

"What are they?" the white growlithe asked.

"Those big things are called buildings," Spark explained simply, "Humans live in them, work in them, or battle pokémon in them. Those rectangle things are called doors. They move, and let you enter a building. Okay, let's go."

Snowcrystal looked puzzled, and quite confused about what Spark had been trying to say. She looked around at the buildings, not seeing any humans around. Rosie started to run toward the town, but once again, Stormblade tried to stop her. "Wait!" he warned her, "You need to at least look out for danger before you go running in there!"

Spark walked right up to him, stopping when he was a foot from Stormblade and the vulpix. "Stormblade," he stated flatly, "Three words…Par-a-noid!" He then turned and darted toward the nearest buildings.

"That's one word!" Stormblade yelled, heading after him.

Snowcrystal quickly caught up with Rosie. "Well, we better go look for that fire stone, and look out for humans," she whispered, as she and the vulpix followed the other two.

* * *

Blazefang's claws scraped the dust around the shiny object, revealing it to be a flat, almost oval-shaped stone. It was clear, and a dark purple in color, with slightly darker flecks all across it. Blazefang thought it must be a gem or a crystal of some sort, and set about trying to free it from the earth. 

It was harder than he expected. The ground was hard and packed tightly around the object, and his claws made little progress as he sought to free the stone by digging. Blazefang then tried to grip with his claws around the edge of the small rock, finally managing to prize it loose. Looking down at the dusty object on the ground, Blazefang rolled it over with his paw. "Well, what do you think it was here for?" he asked.

"I dunno…looks like just an old rock," Boneclaw replied, "But it's a kinda pretty one!"

Blazefang peered closely at the stone, noticing a few small imperfections in its shiny surface. Most of them were just minor nicks and scratches, but one was a narrow hole near the top of the stone. However, he still thought it looked pretty nice. "Heh, maybe I'll keep it. I could make a sort of medallion out of it or somethin'."

Boneclaw was about to reply when a harsh cry rang out through the rocky area, and several ghostly forms suddenly materialized around the group, all looking very angry. Blazefang held back a cry of surprise and gritted his teeth. He'd been ambushed…but already, he was thinking up a plan. "Everyone! Over here!" he yelled, and several panicked houndour arrived at Blazefang's side, gazing terrified at the ghosts. Blazefang glanced around, noticing that some were missing. Quickly realizing that the ghosts were all over the place, Blazefang figured they probably must have fled in terror, since there had been no sight or sound of an attack from the ghost pokémon yet.

Blazefang was quick to give orders. He kicked the purple stone toward one of his fellow houndour. "Boneclaw, hold this, everyone, get in a circle and face the pokémon!" Boneclaw picked up the rock in his mouth, while the other houndour did as Blazefang said.

The ghost pokémon seemed to be glaring at Boneclaw in particular, and the houndour in questioned flattened his ears against his skull, growling. Many of the enemy ghosts were soon charging up some attacks, and at that moment, Blazefang cried, "Flamethrower, now!"

All at once the houndour fired blasts of red-hot flame at the ghost pokémon, while Blazefang signaled a retreat. The houndour backed off, taking turns at launching their attacks at the oncoming horde of ghost pokémon, striking quite a few while at the same time making it very difficult for the ghosts to attack them back.

Blazefang was glad of his pack's numbers. He had them firing their attacks in turn; one small group using their attacks after another had just fired theirs, creating a constant stream of flame that caused great panic and chaos among the ghost pokémon. Blazefang chuckled to himself as a shadow ball plowed into the ground to the side of him. These pokémon weren't great fighters; they seemed to want to rely more on scaring them off, but that advantage was long lost.

It wasn't long before Blazefang and the houndour had cleared the rocks, meeting up with Wildflame and the few houndour who'd fled. They then took to a run, soon leaving behind the angry ghosts who'd briefly attempted to follow them across the plains. Blazefang snickered to himself as he glanced back at the pokémon, who obviously weren't suited to the intense heat and the bright daylight. One by one the ghosts vanished, looking defeated and at a loss for what to do. Feeling pleased with himself, Blazefang called to the others in the group, "You see? If we had stopped there during the night, we might not have been so lucky. But then again, those ghosts only seemed to be good at trying to scare us off. Haha! Well, that's a lousy defense that ain't gonna work against us!" Still chuckling to himself about how well he'd handled the situation, Blazefang led his group toward the forest, not bothering to check on those who'd received minor injuries in the retreat from the rocks.


	5. Search for the Fire Stone

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 5-Search for the Fire Stone**

Snowcrystal was awed by the human's buildings and their strange structures. For a while, Stormblade made sure they all kept to the shadows, to the alleyways, because although there was likely to be more traps, there would be less chances of encountering a human. Stormblade was obviously still unhappy about having to come there, and even Spark seemed to realize that something was amiss in the odd town, as a lot of the buildings seemed broken down and forgotten, and there were very little humans outside. The only humans Snowcrystal saw were walking along a sidewalk a little ways away, carrying some odd metal objects, but definitely no fire stone.

As they walked through another alley, Snowcrystal saw Stormblade and Spark point out several traps along the way, though most of them, Spark had told her, were designed for rattata. "Do you think it's just the rattata the humans want out?" Snowcrystal asked.

"When Spark and I went by this town before, I saw bigger traps near some of the other buildings," Stormblade replied, "I guess pokémon might have once come here a lot to steal food or something." As Snowcrystal followed him carefully, she noticed a few small, sweet-smelling objects up ahead. Stormblade explained to her, "Those are called pokéblocks, but those ones smell poisoned to me. Don't go near them."

"Where are we supposed to find my fire stone in this place?" Rosie cried, "Shouldn't we be looking for the human who took it?"

"I think it's safe to wander around for a bit," Spark told the others, with a nod to Rosie, "There doesn't seem to be many humans around."

Snowcrystal nodded in agreement and the four pokémon started to wander the streets, feeling confident that they'd be able to flee from a human easily if they were spotted. However, they tried not to stay out in the open too much, as even Spark was a bit wary about being seen.

The town was scary and confusing to Snowcrystal, and she was soon ready to give up. She was about to suggest they go back, when suddenly Rosie gave a small growl of anger and hissed, "Look…it's him! That's him…the human that put me in that cage…"

The four pokémon ducked into an alleyway as a tall man walked by, a quilava trotting calmly by his side. Snowcrystal looked to see if he was holding the fire stone, but she couldn't tell.

As the man passed, his quilava stopped, taking a quick look around as he sniffed the air suspiciously. "Volco, come!" the man snapped, and the quilava turned reluctantly away and followed the man.

Rosie peered after them, whispering, "We gotta follow, come on!"

"Wait," Snowcrystal whispered back, "He has pokémon, and we don't want a fight. We should wait a while, then follow his scent to wherever he's going, and then see if we can find where he put the fire stone and take it back."

Rosie sighed impatiently. "All right…" she mumbled reluctantly, "We'll wait…"

* * *

Blazefang was still feeling strangely cheerful as he and the other houndour reached the forest. There, he managed to find tough enough plant fibers to make a medallion out of the strange stone. By managing to push both ends of the plant fiber into the narrow hole at the top of the stone, Blazefang had made it secure enough to ensure that the stone wouldn't fall off. He now wore it around his neck, much like Snowcrystal's.

Blazefang liked his new amulet. It made him feel more in authority, and there was something about it that put him in a good mood. The houndour pack had stopped at the stream Spark had found before for a rest and a drink. Though most of them were exhausted and just wanted to get some sleep, Blazefang felt energetic and wide awake. He wanted to continue following the growlithe, but he knew the others needed to rest, and for once he wasn't angry about it.

Pacing happily around the area, Blazefang let his mind wander, daydreaming about what it would be like to really find Articuno and have him on his side…

* * *

It was nearing evening by the time Snowcrystal and the others left to follow the human with the quilava. Being a growlithe, it wasn't hard for her to track the scent, and it led her to a particularly run-down section of the town, where even less humans seemed to be. They followed the winding roads, and came to a very large building, which Spark mentioned was called a pokémon gym.

Snowcrystal and the others tried to find a way in, but there seemed to be no way to enter the gym quietly. Just as they were about to give in, they heard the man's voice from not far away.

"Well, Volco," the voice was saying quietly from up ahead, "We found the fire stone that pidgeotto took, _and _I caught a vulpix in a cage. I'll see if it's strong enough later." Snowcrystal and the others crept forward, seeing the man and his quilava walking toward a section of the gym that was outside. The man flung a small object in the air and caught it easily. Snowcrystal noticed Rosie's eyes grow wide-it was the fire stone. The man continued talking, "This should help Redclaw to grow a bit stronger, shouldn't it?"

The quilava replied, but Snowcrystal couldn't hear what he was saying. The trainer and pokémon headed toward a group of fences, and the man opened a door to one of them and walked inside. "Is he going to use my fire stone on another pokémon?" Rosie asked, alarmed.

"I don't know," Spark whispered back, "Let's just see what's behind those fences. It looks like there's a few practice battlefields outside…" he added, walking up to one of the fences and peering through it.

Snowcrystal peered through it as well, seeing that the ground beyond was made up of a wide, flat surface, with thick white marks running across it in different areas. "Looks like a practice battlefield to me," Stormblade whispered, "But the human went that way. Let's go… quietly."

Snowcrystal was glad that it was somewhat darker now, and that there still seemed to be no humans wandering the streets in this part of the town. As the group walked by the practice battling areas, they came across several, much taller fences, as well as thick concrete walls in some places.

It was just when Rosie had started fussing about the fire stone again that they heard the same human's voice from not far away. This time, he was shouting angrily, and Snowcrystal kept hearing a loud noise. Padding carefully alongside one of the fences toward the sound, the growlithe crawled through some thick weeds, her belly fur brushing against the ground, when she suddenly found the source of the noise.

Just past the fence she was crouching beside was a closed-off area, a small section of fence with a concrete wall on one side. The man and his quilava were standing inside the fenced area, their backs to her. And to her shock, there was a second pokémon standing beside the concrete wall-another scyther.

Snowcrystal couldn't see the other scyther clearly, but from what she could tell, although it was obviously being beaten in some way by the human, it was just standing there, making no move against him. Spark crawled through the grass to the side of her, while Stormblade and Rosie peered carefully through the fence at a safer distance. "That human…that human has a whip!" Stormblade whispered angrily.

"He has my fire stone too," Rosie whispered back, "Don't forget what we came here for."

"But that scyther's chained!" Stormblade hissed, "We have to do something-"

"We can't do anything while that human and his quilava are around," Snowcrystal whispered back, "We should watch where he goes, try and see where he takes the fire stone, then we'll decide what to do."

The quilava, Volco, was watching his master calmly as the man brought the whip down on the scyther again, who wasn't even turning to face him. After lashing at the pokémon several more times, he set aside the whip and backed away a bit. Snowcrystal noticed that the scyther had a chain attached to its arm, which was in turn attached to the concrete wall. The human was carefully making sure that he was further away from the scyther than the chain could reach. The pokémon, however, didn't make any move to threaten him. In fact, she was ignoring him completely. This struck Snowcrystal as very strange, because although she wasn't familiar with whips, she figured that had to hurt, and the scyther wasn't cowering from the man either, just standing by the wall and ignoring him.

"That's strange…" Snowcrystal whispered to Spark, "Why doesn't that scyther fight back? I'm sure she can take down a human-"

"I dunno," Spark replied quietly so only she could hear, "But this is strange…I don't like this place…I'm starting to think that maybe Stormblade was right for once. Let's leave…I want to get out of here. Rosie can find herself another fire stone…"

"What?" the vulpix hissed, and Snowcrystal realized that she must have heard the last bit of what Spark had said, "I'm not leaving without my fire stone!"

"I'm not leaving until we can find a way to help that other scyther!" Stormblade stated firmly.

"Do you have to try and help every random stranger you come across?" Spark muttered to Stormblade, rolling his eyes, "What if that scyther doesn't want your help?"

"Quiet!" Snowcrystal growled, and turned back to the man and his quilava. The human was still facing the scyther, who for the first time, was actually looking at him, but with an almost bored and uninterested expression.

Snowcrystal thought the man smiled. "You must be thirsty…" he was saying, "Standing out here in the hot sun all day." At this point the scyther had started to ignore him again, even when he held out a small bowl of water. "Well you don't get none today," he shouted in a burst of sudden anger, flinging the bowl to the ground, where the water seeped into the dirt at the scyther's feet. He muttered a few angry words to the chained pokémon before stooping down and allowing Volco the quilava to climb on his shoulder, muttering under his breath as he left the fenced area and locked it. He then walked in the opposite direction of Snowcrystal and the others, toward the gym building.

For a moment, no one moved or spoke, and Spark looked horrified that a trainer would treat his pokémon that way. Snowcrystal was beginning to think that he must have had a very good trainer and hadn't heard about these sorts of things, like she herself had heard back at the mountain, and it came as a sort of shock. Finally, Rosie spoke up, "He went in that building…and he took the fire stone with him. We have to hurry, I think I heard him saying something about evolving someone named Redclaw…"

"Wait…let's see if we can find out why that human's keeping the scyther there, and if we can help," Snowcrystal whispered.

"He's keeping her there because she's his pokémon," Spark replied, standing up and shaking off bits of grass that had gotten tangled in his spiny fur, "That's all there is to it-he's a trainer. Though why he's keeping the pokémon chained up and not in a pokéball I don't know…"

"Come on, let's go…" Snowcrystal whispered, "Before he comes back…" Slowly she approached the fenced area where the strange scyther was. Now able to see up close, she could tell that as well as the chain around the scyther's arm that was attached to the concrete wall, there was a heavy-looking iron collar around her neck, that looked as if a chain could be attached to it as well. The scyther hadn't noticed them, and was busy trying to lick drops of moisture from the rocky ground, making the previously tough-looking pokémon look almost feeble. Finally abandoning the attempt, the scyther headed back toward the wall, before lying down against it.

She then got the shock of her life as Stormblade suddenly flew over the fence to land right in front of her. Leaping up in surprise, the scyther stared at Stormblade in confusion, then lunged toward him, both scythes raised. The chain stopped her in mid-leap, but she still swiped at Stormblade with her other scythe, taking out a small chunk of his left wing. Taken completely by surprise, Stormblade backed away, shaking drops of blood from his injured wing. The other scyther glared at him, but didn't attempt another attack-he was too far out of range.

"Stormblade!" Snowcrystal cried, managing to wriggle through a small gap in one side of the fence. Rosie followed, and Spark tried to follow their example, but ended up getting stuck, and although he struggled franticly, the others were too preoccupied with the trapped scyther's sudden violent attack to notice his plight.

The chained scyther's reaction to Rosie and Snowcrystal was no different than it had been for Stormblade; she charged toward them, but was stopped by the chain before she got close enough to do any damage. For a moment, no one moved at all, and the strange scyther seemed to be daring any of them to come closer as she watched them through narrowed eyes. Once again, Rosie managed to break the silence. "What's your problem?" she shouted at the scyther, "We're only trying to help you! So at least act grateful!"

"Hypocrite…" Spark muttered to himself as he lay half in and half outside the fence, still caught beneath it.

To everyone's immense surprise, the scyther relaxed, and her expression turned from angry to surprised. "You've come to…_help_ me?" She looked completely baffled and shocked, and somehow, Snowcrystal was sure she wasn't going to try and attack them anymore. As the scyther slowly started to pace back and forth near the wall, still seeming unsure of what to think, Snowcrystal quickly gave her a closer look.

The scyther stood a bit shorter than Stormblade, but with blades and wings that were slightly longer than his. Her top two fangs that showed when her mouth was closed were longer too, almost twice as long as Stormblade's. Whether that was unusual for a scyther or not, Snowcrystal didn't know. Various scars and wounds covered the strange scyther's body, but she hardly seemed to notice them at all. In fact, by the way she walked so easily, without limping, or showing any sign of pain, it was almost as if the wounds weren't there. The heavy iron collar around her neck and the chain attached to her arm didn't seem to bother her much either. Snowcrystal remembered how she had acted like the beating she had received was a mere annoyance rather than a horrible experience. She didn't understand it, but she wasn't about to question the scyther.

"Yes," Snowcrystal replied softly, "We're here to help. We helped this vulpix, and we can get you out of here too." As she spoke, her gaze drifted to Stormblade, noticing his wound for the first time. She ran over to him, crying, "Oh, your wing! Are you all right?"

From his unfortunate position at the edge of the fence, Spark muttered darkly, "Oh sure…you notice when he gets hurt. But yet, no one seems to realize that…I AM STUCK IN A FENCE!" Not surprisingly, his shout went ignored.

"It's not important now…" Stormblade told Snowcrystal in answer to her question. Gritting his teeth, he turned to the chained scyther. "But we need to find a way to break that chain…I'm guessing a scythe won't work?"

The other scyther stared at him as if he were crazy. "Do you think I wouldn't have freed myself already if I could cut through it?" To prove her point, she slashed across the chain a couple of times, and it did no apparent damage.

"Maybe we could…" Stormblade began, but Snowcrystal interrupted him.

"I have an idea!" Snowcrystal whispered, "But I'll need Rosie and Spark's help. Wait a minute…where is Spark?" She turned and looked around, finally noticing him. "Oh…you're stuck…" she stated, running over to him.

"About time someone noticed," Spark murmured, rolling his eyes.

For a moment, Snowcrystal struggled with the wire, and then Spark was finally able to wriggle loose, leaving behind quite a few tufts of yellow fur. "Thanks for the HELP Snowcrystal," Spark cried, making a point of saying it loudly.

Snowcrystal beckoned Rosie over to her as she approached the scyther, stopping right beside where the chain attached to the wall. "Uh…stand back," she whispered to the chained pokémon, "I don't want to hurt you by accident."

"I'm not afraid," the scyther muttered, not moving at all. Knowing that their time could be running out, Snowcrystal quickly instructed Rosie on what to do. Together, they used their embers to heat a small section of the chain. Once Snowcrystal decided it was hot enough, she called Spark over to her side, and whispered to him as well.

Spark nodded and concentrated on the section of the chain as his tail started to glow a bright silver. A few moments later, he leaped over the chain, slamming his tail down on the heated metal. The iron tail, combined with the ember attacks, did the trick. The chain broke in two, and the scyther stepped away from the wall, the severed chain still attached to her arm.

"There-you're free now," Snowcrystal whispered, "Go-hurry!" The scyther needed no second bidding. Spreading her wings for probably the first time in a long while, she flew over the fence and away from the buildings, soon disappearing into the growing darkness.

Snowcrystal realized that they'd lingered there for far too long. Turning toward the fence again, the growlithe carefully slipped under it, and waited for the others, before walking around the corner of another section of fence as she headed toward the gym building.

And it was then that she found herself face to face with the trainer's quilava.

* * *

As evening slowly turned to night, Blazefang and the houndour moved stealthily through the forest, always on the lookout for danger. It wasn't that Blazefang was particularly worried, but the others were, namely Wildflame. Snowcrystal's trail was becoming hard to follow, and the group was repeatedly getting lost. However, to everyone's surprise, Blazefang was patient with them.

Oddly enough, the houndour had found both tracks and scent of other travelers, and had reached the conclusion that there were other pokémon helping the growlithe. Blazefang wasn't worried, however, since if the growlithe's group saw him and tried to attack, his pack could easily overpower them. For now, though, it was best to not let the white growlithe know she was being followed. After all, she could just have an idea of where Articuno had gone.

As they traveled on, members of the pack began to notice that Blazefang's stone amulet had begun to glow as the forest became darker. This made Blazefang more pleased, as he liked the thought of owning something rare and unique.

When the pack stopped for another rest, exhausted and lost, Blazefang sat to himself, away from the main group, still hardly tired. Sitting up, he pawed at the strange violet-colored stone, lost in thought. Then, to his amazement, the stone's glow intensified, until the whole area around him was flooded with a bright white light.

Startled, he lifted his paw again and touched the stone lightly, and the glow faded to its normal brightness. Blazefang sat confused, pondering what had just happened. Was there more to this stone than he had realized?


	6. Battle for Freedom

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 6-Battle for Freedom**

Wildflame, along with about ten other houndour, were out hunting. One of them had scented stantler, and Blazefang had sent them to catch prey for the rest of the pack. Now, the group was following the strong scent of the stantler herd which had been there not too long ago. Wildflame was the first one to spot the deer-like pokémon ahead, and the houndour pack spread out, singling out the stantler furthest from the main herd.

Before anyone could move further, one of the other stantler lifted its head and charged toward where Boneclaw was hiding, sending the houndour scurrying for cover. A few other houndour raced toward the stantler, surrounding it and allowing Boneclaw to escape. The stantler backed away, an alarmed look in its eyes, but a moment later, the rest of the herd came dashing toward them, just like they had done when Snowcrystal and her friends had accidentally threatened one.

"Move out of the way!" Wildflame shouted, "Come back and circle any stragglers!" The houndour bolted in different directions, having had experience with stantler before. Most of the stampeding ones were probably just illusions, but Wildflame wasn't taking any chances.

The stantler heard thundered past, and Wildflame ordered the pack to follow them. As she raced after the rest of the houndour, one of the larger, tougher stantler suddenly leaped in front of her, bringing his hooves smashing down into her side. Wildflame let out a yelp as she was forcefully knocked off her feet and into a tangle of brambles. She glanced wildly around, but the pack had already left, chasing after the rest of the herd. She was alone, and there was no way one single houndour could bring down a stantler…and this one seemed bent on killing her to protect his herd from a future attack.

Wildflame barely managed to avoid another stomp of the beast's hooves, and when she got to her feet, she knew there was no choice but to fight. After being kicked by the stantler, she knew she couldn't outrun him in this state. Doing the only thing she could think of at the moment, Wildflame used a smog attack. Thick smoke filled the area, hiding the stantler from view. Hoping it would be blinded by the attack, Wildflame started to limp off.

However, it wasn't enough. The stantler came charging toward her through the billowing smoke, rage filling its eyes. Wildflame saw in that look a hatred for her kind and for predators. She was unable to escape as the stantler charged toward her with a powerful take down, lowering his horns as he slammed Wildflame forcefully to the ground.

Wildflame lay prone on the leafy earth, hearing the worried cries of her packmates. They knew, but she would be dead before they could come to her rescue. With her last bit of strength, she painfully tried to stand up, and to her immense surprise, she did.

For some strange reason, she was able to stand firmly, no longer feeling as if she were about to faint. The smog had seemed to clear away a bit as well, or was it getting lighter? Wildflame then realized that the light, the glow, was coming from herself.

The stantler was charging toward her again, and with a snarl Wildflame leaped at him, her legs and paws already starting to lengthen and become much slimmer, her claws growing longer and more curved. Her muzzle was also becoming longer, her teeth even more sharp and deadly. Horns curved back behind her head, and as she struck the stantler, sinking her teeth around its neck, she could feel her tail grow long and thin, with an arrow-shaped point at the end.

The dazzling glow faded a moment later, leaving a newly-evolved houndoom clinging to the enraged stantler with teeth and claws. Wildflame felt the hooves pounding into her stomach, but she was much larger and stronger now. Releasing the pokémon, Wildflame landed on all fours, breathing heavily, but with the wild light of battle in her eyes. Leaping at the stantler again, Wildflame locked her jaws around its throat, hoping for a swift kill. A brief struggle ensued, and the two collapsed in the dirt. A moment later, Wildflame stood up shakily, her prey lying at her feet.

She had done it. Relief flooded over her, and she could hear the sounds of her pack coming closer. Wildflame lifted her head and gave a few barking cries, a signal to the rest of the hunting pack. As the other houndour approached, exhaustion overcame Wildflame, and she collapsed in a heap.

* * *

It was hard to tell who was more surprised-Volco or Snowcrystal. The quilava just stared back at the growlithe for a few seconds, but quickly overcame his surprise. Dashing towards Snowcrystal, he plowed her into the side of the fence with quick attack. Spark leapt to his friend's rescue, striking Volco with thunderbolt and sinking his fangs into the quilava's leg.

The two pokémon struggled in the dust, and as Rosie and Stormblade appeared, Volco's trainer did as well, stepping from around the corner of a concrete wall. Glancing toward the pokémon, the man gave a cry of shock, for two reasons. One, "his" scyther was loose and standing right by the fence. Two, there was a growlithe recovering from one of his quilava's attacks…that had white fur.

"Volco, flame wheel! Thunder, get the others!" the trainer shouted. Volco leaped away from Spark as the flames on his head and back flared up. Opening his mouth wide, he fired a whirling tornado of flames at his attacker. Spark nimbly leaped out of the way, his back fur only singed, and instantly turned his pelt to spines before whipping around and firing a large amount of them at the attacking quilava's face.

Volco gave a shriek of pain as the sharp spines embedded themselves in his face and chest. Pawing furiously at them, the quilava didn't hear his trainer's next orders. Volco's trainer now focused his attention on Stormblade, glaring at the scyther through the darkness. "Thunder, MOVE!"

Stormblade stood still, confused, and the human tried to look at him closer. It was only then that he realized that this wasn't his scyther. Giving a cry of frustration, he reached for a pokéball hooked to his belt and threw it. "Redclaw, go!"

A massive shape materialized in front of Spark and the others. It bore a strong resemblance to Snowcrystal, only it was much bigger, had a longer mane, and thicker stripes, as well as fangs that stuck out of its mouth. Unlike Snowcrystal however, the arcanine had bright, vivid orange fur, and stripes as black as tar, strikingly different from the pale gray of Snowcrystal's own stripes. Red flames had also been painted on the arcanine's claws. Unlike Volco, who looked healthy and well fed, the arcanine was gaunt and thin, the marks of a whip clearly evident along its back. It wore a strange collar that emitted several sparks every few seconds. The arcanine looked almost as wounded and malnourished as the trainer's scyther, whom from what the man had said seemed to be called "Thunder".

"Redclaw," the man shouted, "Attack that other scyther! And don't let the growlithe escape!" Redclaw gave a loud roar, though it sounded less than enthusiastic, and charged toward Stormblade, launching a flamethrower in the scyther's direction. Stormblade leaped aside, and at a command from his trainer, Redclaw fired the same attack again. This time, as Stormblade dodged, the flames seared across his shoulder, and when he landed on his feet again, he could see the arcanine with his mouth open wide, fangs gleaming, and a faint red glow at the back of the dog's throat growing steadily brighter. Stormblade, knowing what was coming, quickly darted behind a concrete wall just as Redclaw launched the attack, feeling the heat of the flames as they blazed past him. Meanwhile, Volco had recovered, and was now battling against Snowcrystal, Spark, and Rosie.

As Volco shot another flame wheel at Spark, who barely managed to dodge and still got his paw burned, Rosie's eyes started to glow as she focused them on Volco. All of a sudden the quilava's eyes glazed over a bit, giving him a dazed and confused look. He tried to launch another flame wheel, which collided with the concrete wall instead of hitting Rosie, who was in the opposite direction.

Volco stumbled around to face his opponents again, shaking his head to try and clear his thoughts. Spark struck him with another thunderbolt, and the quilava sank to the ground, the confuse ray's effects fading away, but all too late. The trainer cursed under his breath and immediately returned his quilava before Snowcrystal's jaws could clamp around his front leg.

At the same time Volco was returned, Stormblade found himself face to face with Redclaw; both of them seeming reluctant to attack. Redclaw now seemed exhausted and weak, dreading the thought of having to go on, and Stormblade couldn't seem to find it in himself to attack him. "Redclaw, fire blast that bug!" the arcanine's trainer shouted. Redclaw seemed to flinch at the command, then began charging up the attack. Stormblade leaped out of the way as Redclaw launched the fire blast, but he needn't have bothered. The attack was a miss, plowing into the ground to the right side of the scyther. Redclaw began panting for breath, his whole body visibly shaking. Stormblade left him as he ran to help his friends, who were now fighting a skarmory that Volco's trainer had sent out. Their fire attacks had clearly weakened the emaciated pokémon, but nevertheless, it was still fighting, a look of insane rage in its eyes as it clawed Snowcrystal's back, leaving bright red gashes that stood out strikingly against her soft white fur.

"Stop it!" Stormblade cried, rushing toward the others, "He'll only send out one pokémon after another. Don't attack the pokémon, it isn't their fault-we just need to get out of here!"

Rosie nodded, but knowing that the trainer would only follow them, she used her confuse ray once again, on the skarmory this time, and she and the others took off, running past Stormblade and toward the woods. The skarmory gave a cry of rage and flew towards Stormblade as he turned to follow the others, gouging its claws into his back. Stormblade tried to shake the pokémon off, not wanting to attack it in this weakened state-it had obviously been trained in a cruel way purely to fight again and again. The skarmory tore its claws into the scyther's back again, letting loose another angry cry. Stormblade was sent crashing into the ground, the skarmory still hovering above him.

Redclaw and his trainer came dashing toward the two, watching as the skarmory swiped its razor-edged wing feathers across the scyther's face. Stormblade, knowing that there was no other option, lashed out with both scythes at the skarmory's chest, but it seemed to do little damage to the steel pokémon. A moment later, the skarmory had him pinned down, its claws digging cruelly into his shoulders.

The trainer watching the fight took an empty pokéball from his belt. "All right, Redclaw, finish 'im off!" Redclaw darted swiftly toward the fight, a bright glow coming from his muzzle. He then blasted the flames not at Stormblade, but at the skarmory.

The steel pokémon gave a cry of pain and collapsed, allowing Stormblade to struggle to his feet. As the skarmory recovered, Redclaw stared into the scyther's eyes, ignoring his trainer's cries of, "Redclaw! I'll punish you for this!...You'll wish you were dead by the time I'm through with you!"

"Get out of here," the arcanine whispered to Stormblade softly, "Go away…don't come back. You don't want him to catch you…you deserve a better life than this, friend."

Stormblade stared back in shock for a moment, then realized that this arcanine was grateful to him for his refusal to fight back, and that the arcanine probably got beaten by his opponents quite often. Knowing there was nothing more he could do for the fire dog, he nodded and flew off toward the forest.

Watching him leave, Redclaw bowed his head as his trainer caught up with him, furious that the group of wilds had gotten away. Redclaw knew what was coming, but he didn't care. He had done what was right; he had helped that scyther, and he had denied his trainer a new group of pokémon, as well as a rare-colored growlithe.

And that in itself was like a small victory.

* * *

Spark cried out in pain as he collapsed, exhausted, in the middle of the forest, before starting to lick his burned forepaw. Snowcrystal collapsed next to him, the claw wounds on her back still bleeding.

Rosie, luckily, was unscathed. She approached the others timidly, whispering, "What about my fire stone?"

"Rosie," Snowcrystal whispered, "I think that human used the fire stone on that arcanine."

Rosie glanced toward the ground sadly, and to Snowcrystal's shock, started crying again, not caring if she or Spark saw. "I…I've waited so long to evolve," she whispered softly.

Snowcrystal was about to reply when Stormblade came staggering into the clearing. Apart from the burn on his shoulder, he had several deep claw marks in his back and shoulders, and the bleeding cuts on his face from the skarmory's feathers. Stormblade sat down beside a tree, panting, as the others tried to recover from the effects of the battle.

"We shouldn't have gone in there," Spark whispered at last, "You were right, Stormblade."

"Well, we're alive aren't we?" Stormblade replied, "And we did get to help that other scyther..."

"Yes…" Snowcrystal agreed, standing up, "But we'd better get going. That human could be looking for us…come on…"

Rosie slowly stood up and plodded after Snowcrystal, Spark limping beside her. Stormblade stood up and followed, and Snowcrystal could tell by his slightly awkward movements that he was in pain. She was surprised when Rosie spoke up in a helpful-sounding voice, "You know, there's rawst berries over there. If you and Spark eat them, it will help your burns to not get infected, and maybe even heal a bit faster." She motioned toward a berry bush nearby, and Spark and Stormblade, as well as Snowcrystal and Rosie herself, ate a few before carrying on.

* * *

The trainer's scyther had never felt so much freedom. Ever since she had been freed, she had spent nearly an hour running and flying all around the forest, just for the sheer joy of being able to do it. The long chain still attached to her arm had gotten tangled in many bushes and brambles, but she had hardly noticed. She was _free_.

The scyther had not known freedom for as long as she could remember. Having been raised by her trainer at a young age, her life before that was a blur. Whether or not she had had a name then, she wasn't sure, as she had always gone by the nickname her trainer had given her, Thunder.

At last Thunder became so exhausted she had to stop and rest, no matter how much she wanted to keep running forever and ever. It was so different from being chained to a wall all day, as her trainer tended to do to her often, or being stuck inside a pokéball. However, one of the things that did get Thunder to finally stop her constant wandering was a nearby stream.

The moment she saw it, she darted over, plunging her head into the stream and drinking as much of the cool, clean water as it took to quench her thirst. She was amazed. All this water was here, and no one to tell her how much she was allowed to drink. She could come here to the stream again and again-as much as she wanted, and her master would never know.

_Master…_Thunder became suddenly afraid. Her trainer was sure to come after her with his other pokémon. She couldn't stay here, but she could find another forest…and another water stream like this one.

Once she had finished drinking from the stream, Thunder headed deeper into the forest, not caring to look for danger and fearing nothing and no one…

…No one but Master.

* * *

Snowcrystal was glad Stormblade could still fly. The wounds on his back looked nasty, but his wings weren't badly damaged, the only real damage having been done with the chained scyther had attacked him. Stormblade had just told them, to everyone's great relief, that they were nearly out of the forest, and a vast grassy plain lay beyond.

Snowcrystal didn't like sending Stormblade to scout ahead when he was injured, but they really didn't have much of a choice. The cuts across Snowcrystal's back still stung, but they had stopped bleeding. However, many of Stormblade's wounds were still bleeding, as he had been flying back and forth in search of a way out, and all that extra traveling hadn't been good for him. Snowcrystal wanted to suggest that they rest, but what was important now was getting out of the forest.

The trees seemed to thin out as the group got further, and Snowcrystal sighed with relief as she realized that they really didn't have far to go.

A movement up ahead caught her eye, and she realized that the same scyther they'd helped before, the one the trainer had mentioned was named 'Thunder', had flown to the forest floor up ahead, looking completely exhausted. The moment she saw the group, Thunder jumped toward them with the intention to attack, but stopped herself when she realized who they were.

"What are you still doing here?" Stormblade asked her, "You should be far away from this forest!"

"I will be," Thunder replied simply, "But I don't know where to go. Maybe Master's pokémon will try and find me…I don't know these lands well."

Spark gave Snowcrystal a confused glance, but they both knew that what Thunder meant by 'Master' was her trainer. "We don't know these lands either," Snowcrystal explained, "I'm on a journey…I'm traveling to find…Articuno." She was surprised when Thunder didn't show any interest in the legendary's name being mentioned. "Stormblade, this scyther, and Spark, this jolteon, are looking for a new home," she finished, "And I'm sure Rosie is too. If you want, you can come with us…you shouldn't be wandering alone when you're injured."

"I am not injured," Thunder replied, though Snowcrystal could plainly see that that was a blatant lie. From the look on Snowcrystal's face, Thunder could tell what she was thinking. "I am not injured," she repeated, "Master was not very angry with me. He did not hurt me much. If Master was very angry, I would be injured now, but I'm not."

Spark and Snowcrystal exchanged puzzled looks again, clearly not understanding how this scyther could regard such painful looking wounds as 'nothing'. However, they decided not to question her on the subject. "So…do you want to come with us?" Snowcrystal asked, fully trusting the strange scyther, "After all, Stormblade and Spark are looking for the same thing you should be looking for-a safe new home."

Thunder shrugged. "I guess so…" she replied, "I don't know whether Master's pokémon are searching for me, but I will come with you…for a little while."

Snowcrystal nodded happily and the group headed off. Snowcrystal couldn't help but notice how Spark and Stormblade were limping; their wounds were obviously bothering them. Thunder, however, moved swiftly and easily, as if she wasn't injured at all. Only the look in her eyes gave away that she was in pain, and even then it was hard to tell.

Snowcrystal sighed. They were certainly becoming an odd group of adventurers, but at least they would be working together if any danger happened to come their way.


	7. Another Little Adventure

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 7-** **Another "Little" Adventure**

A light breeze drifted over the grassy plains toward the group as they emerged from the last of the forest's fringes of trees and onto the sweet-smelling grass in the early morning. Flowers were everywhere, and there were tall cliffs, though not as tall as the ones Snowcrystal was used to, close by near the forest they had just traveled through. Flowers dotted the sides of these cliffs, giving them a tranquil and calming look. The place seemed so peaceful, Snowcrystal could almost believe they were safe. But they had plenty to worry about. Out of the group of five, four were injured. None of them had had adequate food in the past few days. Spark and Snowcrystal had eaten some berries, but that was all, and the others had only had a few rawst berries. That, and who knew what danger could be lurking hidden here?

Despite all this, Snowcrystal felt like she could relax here, and so she and the others decided to rest. Snowcrystal lay down among a small bed of wildflowers, while Spark did likewise, his paw still causing him pain. Rosie, however, obviously wasn't all that weary, as she was constantly running around, tearing up flowers and plant stems as she bolted through the tall grass, happy to be away from the forest. Knowing that the vulpix was having fun, Snowcrystal didn't bother her. It would probably take her mind off the fire stone anyway.

Thunder wasn't very concerned with taking a rest either. She was busy exploring the area around them, not paying any heed to the others. Stormblade had practically collapsed the moment Snowcrystal and Spark had announced that they'd be stopping. After a while, Rosie became bored with running through the grass and flowers, and urged the rest of the group to move on.

Snowcrystal decided that it would be better to travel by the high cliffs that towered overhead, which would provide shade once it got hotter. They had just reached the foot of the cliffs, when Snowcrystal spotted a group of strange pokémon ahead. They were odd-shaped yellow bee-like pokémon that looked somewhat like honeycomb. "What are they?" Snowcrystal asked, watching a large group flying towards a large field of wildflowers some ways ahead.

"Oh, those are combee," Spark replied, not sounding very interested. Obviously he had seen them before on his travels.

"Did you and Stormblade pass this way when you came to the forest?" Snowcrystal asked.

Spark shook his head. "No, we entered the forest by a different way. We've never been here before."

Rosie suddenly gave a loud shriek as one of the combee flew by, interrupting Spark and Snowcrystal's conversation. "A BUG!" the vulpix cried, running over to Stormblade and clinging to his leg. Stormblade gave her a weird look. "What?" she growled, glaring back at him, "I don't like bugs…they're scary…" She looked at the combee again and shuddered.

Stormblade just stared.

"Bugs aren't scary, Rosie," Snowcrystal said cheerfully, "Look, the combee aren't even bothering us. Just leave them alone and they'll leave you alone." As Snowcrystal was talking, Stormblade looked past her to see Thunder charging toward a combee who had apparently got too close to her, swiping at it with both her scythes. The combee managed to get away as Thunder's chain snagged on a bush, causing her to fall over.

"Leave the combee alone…" Stormblade called to her, "They won't bother you and they aren't good for prey either."

Rosie stepped away from Stormblade, sticking her tongue out at another combee as it passed. "I'm…I'm not afraid of you anymore!" she called after it.

"Wow…" mused Spark, "These things are everywhere…hey look!" He leaped up and pointed with his paw to a large crevice in the side of a nearby cliff. A few combee were coming in and out of the opening. "Those combee must have a hive up there," Spark told Snowcrystal, "And hive means honey. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Snowcrystal looked blank. "Uh…what?"

Spark sighed impatiently. "Don't tell me you don't know what honey is…well, you won't know how good it is until you taste it!"

"You mean there's food in that cave up there?" Snowcrystal whispered, "Do you think they'd give us some?" She glanced toward the large groups of combee flying over the fields.

"No, they won't," Spark told her simply, "But they have plenty of food and I'm starving, let's go!" He started to run toward the rocky side of the cliff, leaving Snowcrystal still looking confused.

Stormblade suddenly stamped down on the jolteon's tail, preventing him from running any further. "Stop! Do you think the combee will want you stealing from their hive?" he growled.

Spark turned his head toward the scyther and smirked. Suddenly the hairs of his pelt stuck up straight with a twanging noise, turning into sharp needle-like spines. Stormblade jumped back with a cry of pain, allowing Spark to stand up. Roaring with laughter, the electric pokémon raced off in the direction of the hive.

Snowcrystal sighed. "I guess we better follow him," she told the others, "And maybe…maybe if we just get a little of this…honey and leave it'll be all right. I'm sure those combee won't mind. Besides, we're all hungry!"

Stormblade looked up from where he was sitting against a small tree. Having no paws or claws on his forearms, he was forced to try and pull the spines out of his leg with his teeth. He spat a few out, muttering, "Fine! You go in there…as for me, I'm staying out here…"

"Okay, then you can starve!" Spark called back from where he was still running up ahead.

Snowcrystal sighed. "All right then, stay here Stormblade. The rest of us will go…" Rosie nodded and Thunder merely shrugged, and the two of them followed Snowcrystal as she ran after the jolteon. "Hey wait up Spark!"

The others caught up with the jolteon as he reached the foot of the cliff, directly below the cave. Snowcrystal glanced upward, feeling as if this was somehow a bad idea. However, seeing how peaceful the combee were, there didn't seem to be much danger, and she was beginning to think this would be for the best. After all, they would need their strength for the journey, and this seemed to be the only place to find food in the area, as they probably wouldn't have the strength to hunt for a while. Snowcrystal sighed, not knowing if she'd ever be able to hunt in these kinds of places when her white coat was so easy to spot.

Spark was grinning as he outlined his plan to the others. "Ok, we need to someone to distract the combee flying toward the entrance. Then the rest of us will climb up those rocks on the less steep side and reach the cave. We meet up, go through the cave and find the hive, get some honey and then leave…simple!"

"Isn't that stealing?" Rosie asked with a glance at Spark.

"It's not stealing, Rosie, it's survival!" Spark muttered, "We have to find food somewhere."

"Oh…" Rosie replied, "Yep, it's stealing. Sounds fun!" She gave Spark a mischievous grin.

"Okay," Spark whispered, leaning closer to the others, "Let's get started. Thunder, you'll create the distraction…"

* * *

Blazefang was having strange feelings. As the pack trekked through the dark forest, the houndour leader somehow felt that something was amiss. But as to what that was, he had no clue. His pack was constantly on the alert, following the trail of the growlithe and her companions. They had not run into danger since Wildflame had fought the stantler.

But Blazefang felt tired. His stone amulet almost seemed to weigh him down. He could not shake off the feeling that something was somehow…wrong.

Blazefang nearly jumped out of his fur when Wildflame suddenly appeared beside him. "What's up?" the houndoom questioned, "You look like you're worried about something. Is anyone following us?

"No…" Blazefang replied hastily, "I jus'…I jus' don't like this place…that's all. Let's keep moving so we can get out of here. The growlithe was here recently…"

After a while of trekking through the woods, Blazefang had become so paranoid that he told the pack to take a short break. Walking away from them, Blazefang sought a place where he could be alone with his thoughts. Finally finding a nice area away from the other houndour, Blazefang sat down and tried to think. Not knowing why, he found his mind drifting back to the incident in the wasteland near the forest, when the ghost pokémon attacked. It had been strange…the way they had chased them after Blazefang had retrieved the stone. Had there been a reason that they'd been guarding it?

Almost without realizing it, Blazefang lifted a single claw to the center of the stone. Suddenly a blinding jolt of what felt like electricity surged through the houndour's body. He tried to scream, but found to his horror that he couldn't make a sound. Just before he lost consciousness, he heard what sounded like a voice inside his own head echo around his mind…

…"_Shadowflare…"

* * *

_

Spark, being careful of his injured paw, slowly hoisted himself up on the ledge in front of the cave's entrance. He then helped Snowcrystal and Rosie in turn as they too clambered up on the rock ledge. Thunder was already waiting for them, having scared off quite a few of the combee. The scyther watched the others slowly enter the cave before turning and following them. "I can hardly see anything…" whispered Snowcrystal, "Wait…" Using ember, she blew a small flame, illuminating the area around them. Struggling to keep the flame lit up, she led the way through the rocky tunnel.

Luckily, she didn't have to keep it up for long, as they soon emerged into a large cavern, with massive glowing crystals embedded in the walls, giving off plenty of light. Snowcrystal was reminded fondly of her own home, only these crystals were a pale blue, not red, and some of them were far larger than any she had ever seen.

Rosie and Spark were also glancing around in silent awe, but Thunder only seemed mildly curious, giving the cavern a brief glance all around before starting to walk through it toward the other side. Snowcrystal followed her, gazing at the immense columns of stone that reached from the ceiling to the stone floor, and all the strange formations of rock that surrounded her in every direction.

"Wow…" Spark whispered, awed, as he walked up to a group of thin stalactites that reached almost down to the floor, "These spikey things are everywhere! Look at those big ones way up there…I bet they could fall and cut you in half!"

"That's lovely, Spark," Snowcrystal muttered, "Let's find the hive before the combee know we're in here."

"Aw…it could be in any one of these tunnels," Rosie whispered, glancing around, "How are we gonna find it?"

"Why did these combee have to build their hive in a cave?" Spark muttered irritably.

"So it would be protected, hard to locate, so _other pokémon won't steal their honey…_" Snowcrystal added with a glance at Spark and Rosie.

"Well, let's just look around…" Spark suggested, "If we can't find it, we'll go back…" He padded up to the base of an immense limestone column. The water that had been trickling down the rock pillar for thousands of years had created smooth and intricate patterns in the natural stone. "You have to admit though, this is a pretty cool cave…much prettier than those ones my trainer and I had to travel through. I always hated those caves. Full of geodudes…zubats…If I never have to fight one again…"

"Spark, look!" Snowcrystal whispered, looking ahead. Spark stopped what he was saying and followed Snowcrystal's gaze. Through a tunnel slightly to their right and above a few odd-looking stalagmites on a rock ledge, the growlithe was sure she had seen the flicker of wings. "I think I saw one of the combee in there," she whispered.

The four pokémon crept toward the tunnel, climbing carefully onto the ledge. The chain around Thunder's arm caught on a small stalagmite, causing her to stumble. Turning around angrily, Thunder swiped her blade at the stalagmite, breaking the tiny stone formation easily. Turning away from it with a growl, Thunder caught up with the rest of the group.

Snowcrystal edged her way around some thick stone stalagmites before climbing onto the ledge and peering into the tunnel. Rosie found that she couldn't make the climb and had to be lifted up by Spark.

As they walked through the tunnel that got darker and darker as they progressed, Snowcrystal's sharp hearing picked up the sound of many pokémon, combee. Excited, she and the others raced forward to find themselves standing on a ledge looking over a cavern even bigger than the one they had just left.

Like the other cavern, this one was lit by luminous crystals, though these looked golden. Down below and up above, combee flew everywhere, some in large groups and others by themselves, all headed to and away from what looked like a massive golden cave formation. To Snowcrystal's shock, there seemed to be what looked like pools of golden liquid on rock ledges all around the combee's massive structure. The goldish stuff looked to be flowing into the pools from ledges higher up. "What is that?" Snowcrystal asked Spark as she covered her stone amulet with her paws, trying to keep to the shadows where the crystals' glow wouldn't reach. She did not want to be noticed by the combee flying through the cavern.

"That must be part of the combees' honey storage," Spark answered her. Several combee were fluttering to the pools, but Snowcrystal noticed a small honey pool in a different tunnel that seemed to be ignored, and out of sight of most of the combee. She nodded toward it and the four pokémon carefully crept down the ledge toward it, careful to stay hidden against the wall where it was darkest, away from the crystals. Snowcrystal knew one thing for sure-she didn't want to be caught in that large cavern, however peaceful and harmless the combee seemed…

* * *

Blazefang slowly felt his senses returning. He opened his eyes slowly, looking around. How long had he been unconscious? He thought for a moment. If it had been a long time, the pack would have come looking for him and found him. No, he'd probably only passed out for a few minutes. He stood up, surprised to find that not only did he no longer feel weak, but he felt stronger…the sort of strong he felt when he won a friendly battle with one of his fellow houndour, or when he learned a new attack.

Then he remembered…the jolting pain he had felt when he had touched the center of the purple stone. Carefully he reached out a paw and touched it again. Nothing happened, and he felt no different. Suddenly he recalled the word he'd heard just before he'd passed out…_Shadowflare_. "Shadowflare…" Blazefang mused aloud, "What the heck is a Shadowflare?" Then a thought struck him-what if this stone had given him a new power or attack? He'd heard of human-made devices that could teach pokémon attacks, and he began to wonder if this might be the same sort of thing.

He felt stronger now, very much as if he had learned a new attack or ability. That, and he could practically sense that some strange power now lie within him, a power that hadn't been there before. Oddly enough, he didn't feel afraid. He felt…pleased. Smirking, he stood up and headed back to the others. Whatever this 'Shadowflare' was, he'd find out soon enough, but for now he'd keep this a secret from the rest of the pack.

* * *

"This is a combee hive?" Rosie asked as Snowcrystal led the way through a tunnel.

"Yeah," Spark told her, "These combee decided to live in this cave, and it looks like they store most of their honey in that cavern back there. Luckily for us there weren't that many around."

"Yeah…" Snowcrystal agreed, "I don't like the thought of them attacking us…I'll just be glad when we get out of here."

"Well most of them are outside," Rosie whispered, "But you're right…I don't want to be too close to those combee…they're creepy…"

"Beedrill are worse," Spark whispered back, "Just be glad these are combee. Hey look!" He ran forward, to the pool of honey Snowcrystal had spotted before.

"This is honey, right?" Snowcrystal asked Spark uncertainly, not liking the look of the golden liquid.

"Yep!" Spark answered, walking over to the honey pool and softly licking at its shiny surface.

Snowcrystal glanced at Rosie, unsure if she really wanted to taste the honey. She had to admit, it didn't look very appetizing, but once Rosie started to lick some from the pool as well, Snowcrystal gave in. To her surprise, the honey was sweet-tasting, and she found that she liked it. Spark seemed to like it a lot, as he happily licking away at the honey, his muzzle covered in the sticky substance. At seeing how much Spark seemed to enjoy it, Rosie made a snide comment about him being part heracross.

Thunder seemed to be thinking the same thing as Snowcrystal had been before. The scyther carefully smelled the honey but did not try any. "Come on," Rosie cried, noticing Thunder's reluctance, "It tastes _good_!" Thunder decided to try some after that, but although she didn't dislike it, she didn't seem to really like it all that much either.

Snowcrystal looked up when she heard the flutter of wings. "I think some of the combee are coming this way…" she whispered, "Let's go." Spark nodded and he and the others dashed around the stored honey and into a smaller tunnel…

…Unaware of the combee workers who had just seen Rosie's fluffy tails vanish into the gloom of the passage.


	8. Blazefang's Plan

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 8-** **Blazefang's Plan**

Stormblade was getting tired of waiting. Snowcrystal and the others had been gone for a while, and he was debating whether he should go after them or stay in the field and wait. Also, he was starting to wonder if he should have gone with the others in the first place and got some food for himself. However, the possibility of getting attacked by hundreds, maybe thousands, of combee just didn't seem worth it. For now, he would have to be content with simply waiting for them…alone.

Not far from the field where Stormblade was resting, the houndour pack was nearly out of the forest. Blazefang could tell that the trees were beginning to thin out. Knowing that this meant that they'd be leaving the forest completely soon, he urged the rest of the weary pack to greater efforts. After a while, the houndour leader's assumptions were found to be true, as up ahead, far less trees could be seen, and there were many more clearings and patches of grass. Uncertain of what lie ahead, Blazefang and Wildflame left the pack and crept through the grass to scout the land ahead, soon emerging from the last group of trees and onto the grassy plains.

Blazefang lifted his head above the tall blades of grass and glanced around warily, and sensing no danger, headed back to the pack with Wildflame following behind him. Once they reached the rest of the houndour pack, Blazefang led them toward the grassy plains area, certain that there was no trouble or danger awaiting them.

"We're getting close to the growlithe an' her friends …" Blazefang told the others, "But we would travel much faster if we knew where Articuno was and not have to rely on following the white growlithe, wouldn't we?" He paused, waiting a few moments before carrying on, "And of course there's always the chance that Articuno will help the growlithe instead." Blazefang smiled grimly and continued, "This is why I believe we should eliminate her and her companions once and for all, so at least the growlithe clan won't have a chance at finding Articuno before we do. But first…we need to find out if they actually do know anything about the whereabouts of the legendary bird. Wildflame, that's where you come in."

The houndoom glanced at him, surprised, and Blazefang went on, "If they know we're following them, that's no problem. Wildflame will tell them anyway. If the growlithe's seeking help from others, I want Wildflame to join her traveling party."

"But…" Wildflame began, clearly confused with Blazefang's absurd plan, "If they know about you…they'll never-"

"The growlithe would suspect a houndour or houndoom to be an enemy of her clan," Blazefang explained, "After all, we are her clan's rivals. To earn her trust, make up a story-say you were part of my group who was sent out to stop her by our own leader but we exiled you after your evolution-she knows there aren't many houndoom in our clan. Pretend you've turned to their side and tell them…tell them about me and my pack and how we've been tracking them. It will help you gain their trust when they find out it's true…and it matters not what the growlithe knows about us anymore. We outnumber her little group by far."

Wildflame still looked a bit uncertain, but Blazefang carried on, "And when the moment is right, I'll lead an attack on the growlithe and her friends. You'll fight on their side to further gain their trust. No, we won't kill any of them; in fact, we'll only stay there long enough for you to help the growlithe's friends drive us off. Now, what I want you to find out is where Articuno is. The growlithe must know…why else would she have set off all alone? And the moment you find out anything, report back to me. After all this is finished and we've found out what we want to know, we can get rid of the growlithe and the others for good!"

Wildflame was silent for a moment, then a cruel smile slowly crept across her face.

* * *

Stormblade had decided that he'd waited long enough. Fearing that something could be wrong, the scyther now planned to sneak into the hive himself and find the others. Staying hidden in the tall grass, Stormblade watched more combee fly into the cave. Luckily, the bright green grass camouflaged him enough so that the combee didn't notice him creeping closer to their hive.

A sudden swishing sound in the grass behind him caused him to turn around, startled. But the pokémon scent that reached him wasn't combee. Moving silently out of the way of the approaching pokémon, Stormblade saw the black pelt of a houndour through the grass to his left, followed by many more.

Unsure if they were friendly or not, Stormblade decided to stay hidden until they were gone.

* * *

"Wait…" Boneclaw grunted from behind Blazefang, causing the pack leader to turn around, "There's someone close by."

Blazefang sniffed the air, and replied, "I smell growlithe…and scyther…they passed this way, come on!" Blazefang moved forward, but Boneclaw stayed back.

"No, there's someone this way…" the houndour told Blazefang. The whole pack crept toward where Stormblade was hiding, and the scyther darted away, the sudden movement of the grass alerting the combee...

…To the houndour pack. Blazefang and the others darted away from the cliffs as a large group of combee chased them away from the hive. Peering from the grass, Stormblade realized that the combee had spotted the houndour pack instead, and moved toward the hive while they were distracted. Quickly flying up and into the cave, he couldn't help but wonder what that houndour had meant by saying 'They passed this way…'

Stormblade wasn't exactly sure why, but he now knew that they were being followed.

* * *

Snowcrystal led the way through the gloom of the tunnel, her glowing crystal the only light source aside from the faint shine of the giant crystals from the previous caverns still slightly visible from the back of the tunnel. Spark, seeing another faint glow up ahead, ran forward, accidentally stepping on a few of Rosie's tails.

"Ow!" cried Rosie, "Watch it!"

"Shhh!" whispered Snowcrystal, "Let's just find a way to get out of here…" She crept past Spark and headed toward the next cavern up ahead.

Snowcrystal carefully emerged from the tunnel, and then stopped dead in her tracks. Spark, Rosie, and then Thunder appeared behind her and froze as well.

They had emerged into another large cavern, and surrounding them on all sides was what looked like a wall of infuriated combee. The angry pokémon surrounded them completely, blocking off all exits but the tunnel they had just emerged from.

Spark stared at them for a moment, and then quickly swiped his paw across his muzzle, hoping to rid the traces of honey from his face. "Uh…back through the tunnel," Snowcrystal whispered urgently, ready to dart into the narrow space. Spark and Rosie nodded, but Thunder reacted differently.

To Snowcrystal's shock, the scyther did not seem to want to follow them away from the combee swarm; she instead headed right toward them. Leaping towards the nearest group of combee, Thunder struck out at them both scythes, breaking through the combee's barrier and ending up other side of the cavern. Spark was already heading down the tunnel when Snowcrystal cried, "Wait! If we go that way we'll end up in the bigger cavern…and there's even more of them in there!" Spark didn't seem to hear, as he had already vanished. A large group of combee swerved behind them, soon blocking off the tunnel just after Spark disappeared. Snowcrystal nudged Rosie toward the combee blocking off the rest of the cavern, but the vulpix was standing still, absolutely petrified.

"Come on, Rosie, we can't just stand here!" Snowcrystal whispered. She didn't know why the combee weren't attacking yet, but she also knew it could only be a matter of time. She tried to push Rosie in the direction Thunder had gone, and the vulpix started wailing.

"No! I can't do this…I'm not going near them!" Rosie cried, "They're bug pokémon and I'm not taking a step closer!"

"Thunder and Stormblade are bug pokémon, Rosie!" Snowcrystal cried, picking the vulpix up by scruff before she could reply or protest.

On the other side of the cavern, a battle had broken out between Thunder and about forty combee who were all using gust to try and stop her. Thunder was slashing at them left and right, not even trying to dodge the attacks. After several combee had sustained serious injuries from the attack, they backed off, giving Thunder a wide berth. This was just what Snowcrystal needed. Gripping Rosie tighter, she bolted over to Thunder, noticing a small tunnel up ahead that the combee, who had been guarding it previously, had abandoned during the fight.

Heading toward it, she raced inside and set Rosie down before calling over to Thunder, "Quick, in here!" Thunder completely ignored the shout, racing toward the combee and chasing them through the air, striking any who came too close. Snowcrystal stood watching for a moment, confused. It was as if some bizarre change had come over Thunder, and all she could think about was fighting the enemies. It took a moment for Snowcrystal to realize that she _had_ seen Thunder like this before. When Stormblade had surprised her when she was still chained, she had ripped a section out of his wing, and after that, she had tried to attack her and Rosie upon first seeing them.

However, Snowcrystal didn't have time to dwell on these thoughts for long. There were about sixty combee in the cavern, but Snowcrystal had no way to tell how many total were in the hive. Due to Thunder's attacks, the combee completely ignored Snowcrystal and Rosie, and if anything, seemed confused and frightened, unsure of what to do. As she watched them, Snowcrystal couldn't make out any attacks other than gust being used by the combee, and she felt a bit less wary. Unless they were attacked by a very large number, they couldn't be too dangerous. But sixty was a very large number for one scyther, and Thunder would soon be taken down.

"Thunder! Come over here!" Snowcrystal cried.

Rosie seemed to have recovered a bit from her fright, as she added to Snowcrystal's shout. "Get in here before they kill you, you idiot!" she screamed, but Thunder appeared to not have noticed either of them.

Snowcrystal crouched further into the safety of the tunnel and sighed. "I don't want to do this, but…" Her voice trailed off and she launched an ember in Thunder's direction, striking the scyther's left wing and causing her to turn around. Somehow, that seemed to snap her out of it. At first she ran towards Snowcrystal with the same angry determination to fight she had shown the combee, but as she neared the tunnel, she seemed to realize that Snowcrystal had fired the attack for a reason and quickly darted inside.

Snowcrystal and Rosie ran, hearing the combee behind them but noticing that, strangely, the bee pokémon did not enter the tunnel. Snowcrystal paused to rest. "I don't get it…" she whispered, "Those combee hardly looked like they knew what they were doing, and they didn't even attack us when we were standing by that other tunnel."

"Don't you get it?" Rosie muttered from beside Snowcrystal, "They weren't trying to kill us, they were trying to trap us there. Huh, they've probably got us trapped in this tunnel by now for all we know. Obviously they were ordered to do it. They didn't look like they knew what to do when Thunder went crazy and attacked them. They couldn't have been expecting that."

Snowcrystal thought for a moment, and decided it made sense. Now that she thought about it, the combee had seemed like they had been trying to stop them from going anywhere rather than trying to eliminate them, but why? They had seemed so angry…she'd been sure they were going to attack them…or had they been waiting for something?

Snowcrystal noticed that Thunder was breathing heavily and leaning weakly against the wall, as if taking all those attacks had finally started to affect her. She wouldn't be able to fight her way out if another large group tried to stop them. What Rosie had said about the combee trapping them in the tunnel suddenly dawned on her fully. "We have to get out…" she whispered, "Now!"

* * *

Spark had bolted back through the tunnel and through the cavern with the forgotten honey. He now raced along the rock ledge of the massive honey-filled cavern toward the tunnel they had come into the hive from. Combee soon noticed the fleeing jolteon and flew toward him. In a panic, Spark let loose several bolts of electricity, not bothering to look back and see if he'd struck the combee as he made his way toward the exit. Quickly finding the tunnel he was searching for, Spark leaped into it and ran.

The jolteon could hear what sounded like more combee swarming into the hive, and to his shock, the cavern up ahead, which had been unoccupied before, was full of combee flying towards the main cavern. Swiftly Spark darted into another side tunnel, trying to think of something. The combee were sure to have blocked off all the exits; he couldn't decide what to do now. His only option, he decided, was to find another way to the cave's exit, and make a run for it, or if he had to…fight his way out.

* * *

Blazefang paused once his pack was far enough away from the combee. "Well that was annoying," he grunted, "There's a stream over there. Let's rest here, see what prey or other food we can find, then we'll keep going." As the pack spread out, Blazefang leaned back against a small tree, pawing his stone amulet.

He still was not completely sure what Shadowflare was, only that it was some odd sort of power or attack the stone had given him. Since the incident in the forest, nothing strange had happened, and the stone no longer seemed like anything out of the ordinary.

Blazefang was aware that the white growlithe was somewhere close, and he didn't want to lead his pack any further until he was sure that Wildflame had done what he'd told her to do. Just minutes ago, the houndoom had set off to catch up with Snowcrystal's group, wherever they might be.

* * *

Stormblade was unaware of the danger his companions were in. He had at first considered himself lucky for being able to sneak into the cave and then into one of the passages without being noticed. However, as he wandered through long, maze-like tunnels, he quickly realized that he had no idea where he was going.

The winding passages he was forced to travel through were dark and confusing. He had wandered through them for what seemed like quite a long time with no sign of the combee's hive or of his friends.

Stormblade paused to rest, tired out, as he tried to think of what to do next. It suddenly occurred to him that his friends had probably left, and just hadn't met up with him yet. After all, there didn't seem to be many combee around these passages, and they had probably gone in and out of the hive relatively easily while most of the workers were away. Surprised, and slightly confused, Stormblade started to head back, glad that he'd had the sense to make small marks in the cave walls with his scythes as he'd explored. Now, he could easily follow the marks back to where he'd come.

After a bit of confusion and a short while of stumbling through the darkness, the scyther reached the large cavern he had entered before going into the tunnels. He peered out, and realized with a tremendous shock that the cavern was now filled with combee, blocking the entrance to the tunnel he had used to get into the caves. Ducking back into the passage before he could be noticed, Stormblade wondered if there was another way out. If there was, he realized, the combee would know about it and have it blocked as well.

He was trapped.

Leaning against the wall in the semi-darkness of the tunnel's entrance, Stormblade began to wonder if his friends had gotten out after all. He had to admit, the thought of being trapped in here after the others had gotten out safe wasn't very pleasant, but the safety of his friends was more important. He would somehow have to find out if they were still in the hive, and then somehow come up with an escape plan. Obviously, it would be easier said than done.

The beating of multiple wings interrupted the scyther's thoughts. He ducked further into the tunnel as several combee flew past, several entering the various tunnels around the walls of the large cavern. Stormblade stood perfectly still against the stone wall, watching the entrance warily. He knew he couldn't just hide for long, and he'd have only one option of escape-down the very tunnel he was standing in, though if he moved an inch from where he was, he could easily be spotted by the combee patrolling the area. It wasn't a good situation, to say the least.

However, Stormblade didn't have to wonder what to do for long. His decision was made for him as one of the combee happened to dart into the tunnel he was hiding in, spotting him and calling out to the others. Instantly, half of the tunnel-searching combee flew toward him, and the scyther had no choice but to run.

As he dashed through the tunnel, Stormblade could hear the combee from behind, but the passage was far too narrow to allow him to fly. As he ran further, the tunnel became even narrower, and the ceiling much lower. Knowing that the combee were much smaller than he was, Stormblade could only hope that the passage didn't lead to a dead end. He ran as fast as he could in the narrow space, his wings flattened against his back and his head lowered to avoid hitting the stone spikes on the rocky ceiling.

Unaware of where he was going in the darkness, he suddenly gave a small cry of shock as he realized he had run right over the edge of a steep slope. Before he even had the chance to spread his wings out, he was sent crashing into a large crumbling stalactite. The old stone formation had already been cracked and breaking, and the sudden impact the scyther made against it caused it to crumble and crack at its base. As Stormblade was knocked to the ground, dazed, the rock broke off from the cave ceiling and fell, shattering on the rough stony ground and causing the stone of the floor to crack and break.

Stormblade had barely started to stand up when the rocks beneath him crumbled and broke apart. He now realized from the way the floor was caving in that he was in some sort of small cavern right above a larger chamber. A shard of broken stone struck his head, knocking him down as the cave floor collapsed completely. Stormblade cast a fleeting glance upward, seeing the shocked faces of a few combee who had just managed to catch up with him. A moment later he had landed, not on hard rock, but on something that was actually quite soft.

Stormblade opened his eyes and glanced around, still dazed from the blow to his head. He had landed in some medium sized chamber on a floor that seemed to be covered in a sort of soft moss or other strange plant material. Shaking his head to clear it, Stormblade stood up shakily and took a step backward. He gave a cry of shock as he fell backwards into a large pool of something wet and sticky. Leaping up in disgust, he cried out in anger as he realized he accidentally tumbled into a large pool of honey.

Growling angrily, Stormblade began frantically trying to scrape the mess off his scythes as he muttered under his breath, "This is all Spark's fault…It was his crazy idea to come here…Oh, when I find him…"

Stormblade stiffened suddenly, hearing a noise behind him. Dreading what he would see, he turned around, and froze in shock. Not only were there about fifteen combee already in the chamber, but hundreds more were waiting from a larger cavern, and standing on the other side of the chamber directly in his path…was a vespiquen.

Stormblade glanced around, just then noticing the destroyed ceiling and the very large broken chunks of stone that now littered the cavern and the honey pool. The very same honey pool he was still standing in. The chamber had obviously been much nicer and cleaner than any of the others he had been in before, and probably much nicer than any of the other honey caverns. It took only a second for him to realize that this was a part of Vespiquen's royal chamber…and the chamber had all but been destroyed in the cave in; the cave in that he had unintentionally caused.

Obviously, the vespiquen wasn't too happy about it.


	9. Trapped

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 9-** **Trapped**

Wildflame was confused. She had tracked Snowcrystal's scent to the base of one of the large cliffs, and the scent led to a rocky path to her right which in turn led to a combee hive. Stepping back, Wildflame walked away from the cliff's base, muttering, "Blazefang can yell at me all he wants, but I'm _not_ going in there."

Unsure of what to do, she decided to wait a while, not wanting to face the wrath of Blazefang and the rest of the pack just yet. If the growlithe and her friends didn't come out from the hive after a while, she decided, she could just assume they were dead…

* * *

Snowcrystal knew they wouldn't have much time. They needed to get out before the combee blocked off all of the tunnel's exits. "This way," she whispered, heading off into another tunnel leading to their left. Rosie followed quickly, hearing what she thought were the combee coming closer. The two of them vanished into the tunnel, unwittingly leaving Thunder behind.

"Where are we supposed to be going?" Rosie growled as they moved further through the tunnel, giving Snowcrystal a glare, "You don't have a clue, do you? We could be heading back to that big room where all those combee are and you wouldn't even know!"

"I'm trying, all right," Snowcrystal replied, resisting the urge to point out that Rosie didn't have a clue as to where they were headed either.

Suddenly Rosie gave a shriek and halted, causing Snowcrystal to stop as well. Up ahead, about a dozen combee had entered the tunnel and were now facing them. "Back the other way…" Rosie whispered, turning around.

"Oh come on," Snowcrystal shouted, "They aren't strong in small numbers!" Not bothering to even check if Rosie had heard, Snowcrystal leaped at the nearest of the combee, knocking it out of the air and sending it crashing to the cave floor before sinking her teeth into its wing. Feeling a strong blast of air shoot by her, Snowcrystal leaped out of the way and fired an ember at the remaining combee before darting past them and through the tunnel. The sound of Rosie's pawsteps behind her told her that the vulpix had managed to make it past the combee too. However, the angry pokémon were still following them.

Snowcrystal cast a fleeting glance behind her, only to run straight into Spark who was fleeing from a different tunnel. Rosie, unable to stop in time, crashed into Snowcrystal. The three of them fell to the ground in a tangle of paws and tails. It took Snowcrystal a moment to realize who she had run into.

"Spark!" she gasped, "We've got to go now, there's a group of combee coming straight for us!"

"Well there's about fifty of them coming here from that way," Spark replied, pointing his muzzle toward the tunnel he had been running from, "I'd say your way's better, let's go!"

The combee that had been chasing Rosie and Snowcrystal were surprised to see the two pokémon running back that way with yet another intruder, but a thunderbolt from Spark stunned them long enough for the three to get past. "Which way now?" Spark asked.

"I don't know! Any way!…Uh…let's try this way!" Snowcrystal cried, darting into yet another of the labyrinth-like tunnels.

* * *

Thunder was now making her way through the tunnels on her own. The fact that Rosie and Snowcrystal had left her behind barely registered to her. She wanted to get out of the hive, and her traveling companions were actually of little, if any, concern to her.

The scyther's feet made a loud splash as she entered into a wider tunnel half-flooded with water. The water was trickling down the walls of the cave and from the ceiling, making every rocky surface slippery. There was a deeper pool up ahead and Thunder paused next to it to take a much-needed drink of water.

A lone combee flying toward the hive on its own happened to come by, staring in shock at the dark form of the scyther drinking water from the pool in the middle of the tunnel. The news of intruders had not yet reached this combee, and for a moment he only stared in surprise. But that moment didn't last long. "What are you doing here?" the combee cried, and Thunder's turned her head in his direction.

To the lone combee's shock, the scyther didn't reply, didn't even look surprised to see him there. The smaller bug pokémon had no time to react as the scyther leaped toward him, slashing her blades across the small pokémon's body. The combee fell to the ground, unconscious, and Thunder ignored it, simply walking through the water and into the next cavern.

* * *

Snowcrystal, Rosie and Spark could hear more combee coming their way. Ultimately, they realized, there would be no escaping them, as there were simply too many, and the exits were blocked. Spark peered through a small hole in the cave wall next to him and sighed. "They're everywhere…" he whispered, "And I can't run much longer…" Looking toward the others, he could see that Rosie was exhausted as well, though Snowcrystal didn't look as tired.

"We must keep going," the growlithe whispered, "I'm used to running long distances and I know you aren't, but we have to-"

"Stop!" a voice called from behind, and Snowcrystal reluctantly turned to see a huge group of combee hovering directly behind them. Another equally large group arrived immediately after from up ahead, and the combee formed a large circle around the group, surrounding them completely.

Spark growled, his fur sharpening into spines as he readied an electric attack. "Don't…" Snowcrystal whispered, "We could never fight this many…If they attack back we're done for!" Spark reluctantly nodded, but his fur didn't lie down flat.

The group of combee knew they had caught most of the intruders at last. One of them, obviously the one in charge of the first large group, glared down at the three travelers and called, "You must come with us. Attack, and you'll regret it."

The three friends were soon led by the combee toward what Snowcrystal was certain was the big cavern, knowing that if they attacked, they could easily end up dead.

* * *

Stormblade had to admit that this was just about the oddest situation he'd ever been in, and likely the most dangerous. The combee surrounding the vespiquen looked a lot more angry than the ones he'd seen before. Stormblade stood frozen to the spot as the vespiquen came closer, the eyes of the combee around her glowing slightly. He leapt away from the pool of honey as all at once, the combee fired some bizarre-looking white beam of light at him. Stormblade landed near the wall of the cavern, unscathed, only to have the combee surround him again. The attack they'd just used, he supposed, was probably something the vespiquen had made them do, not an attack they could use normally.

Almost as soon as he landed, the combee fired the attack once again, and he quickly darted out of the way and headed toward the cavern's exit. However, before he'd gotten far, several of the combee's attacks hit him at once, sending him crashing into the ground.

* * *

Thunder had found her way blocked by a swarm of the angry combee. However, rather than running from the pokémon, she charged straight towards them, instantly taking out quite a few with her dangerous scythes. The combee, realizing the danger, swerved out of the way to avoid the whirlwind of slashing blades as Thunder darted by. Seconds later the swarm regrouped and headed toward Thunder, who leaped back and slashed viciously at any who happened to come too close.

The combee seemed momentarily taken aback by Thunder's ferocity, and they weren't sure of what to do. It didn't take them long to decide, and soon Thunder was faced by attacks from all sides. Ignoring the odd beams of white light flying toward her from all directions, Thunder focused on causing as much damage as possible to individuals of the swarm.

Suddenly a shout from a nearby cavern interrupted the battle. Thunder noted with interest that the shout had come from Stormblade. More out of curiosity than anything, Thunder ran toward the tunnel where the shout had come from, ignoring the confused and angry group of combee behind her. A moment later, the scyther had emerged into the vespiquen's wrecked chamber.

One of the combee looked up from where Stormblade lay and toward Thunder, muttering in a shocked voice, "_Another_ scyther?"

Thunder stared at the large group of combee who seemed to have forgotten about Stormblade for a moment. Stormblade, seizing his chance, got and up and flew out of the cavern's entrance, glancing back toward Thunder as if to try and tell her to follow. However, Thunder stood completely still, her gaze fully concentrated on the vespiquen that stood at the other end of the cavern. She gave a loud cry and charged toward the larger bug pokémon, scythes raised. The combee didn't matter to her anymore; this was their leader.

* * *

Stormblade realized all too late that he had accidentally flown into the large cavern. Stopping for a moment, he tried to figure out which way to go was least likely to get him killed. The combee working in the hive all looked up, and the moment they spotted another, quite different flying bug pokémon within their hive, they abandoned their tasks and flew after the scyther.

Stormblade tried to head toward the nearest exit while attempting to dodge multiple attacks, but the combee far outnumbered him, and several attacks at once finally brought him down.

* * *

Thunder ignored the combee swarm as she sprinted toward the vespiquen at the far end of the chamber, leaping up when she was near enough and preparing to strike. However, just as her scythe was but a few inches from the vespiquen, several attacks from a group of combee shot toward her simultaneously and struck, knocking her down to land sprawling at the vespiquen's feet. The combee's leader looked down at Thunder, not seeming surprised in the least. The use of Attack Order had seemed to surprise the scyther, but she was quickly recovering.

Thunder herself was mildly shocked, especially at the way the vespiquen hadn't even moved when she'd tried to attack her. Leaping to her feet, Thunder once again attempted to land a blow, but was yet again blasted back at the last moment by the Attack Order from the combee.

Thunder winced as her head collided with the cavern wall. Getting up in spite of the blood that trickled into her eyes, she leaped up again with a newfound rage. She again tried the same charge, but this time, the combee not only fired their attacks at her, but also formed a wall in front of Vespiquen. Thunder was once again hurled against the ground, gazing in fury at the combee who surrounded their leader.

After the scyther managed to stagger to her feet, the combee fluttered away from Vespiquen, as if daring Thunder to attack again. She didn't disappoint them. The combee watched with what was almost amusement as Thunder tried to attack the nearest of the combee, but they darted away too quickly for the injured scyther to attack. However, it was enough to keep them away from Vespiquen long enough for Thunder to aim another strike.

Thunder slashed her scythe at Vespiquen, who moved neatly to the side in the last instant. As the blade swung past her, Vespiquen gripped Thunder's chain in her claws, stopping the motion of the blade. Keeping a tight grip on the chain, she swung it in a downward motion, bringing Thunder to the ground. Thunder shook the blood from her eyes as she got up and lashed at Vespiquen with both blades, but Vespiquen had already anticipated this and flew swiftly out of the way. Thunder turned and flew after her opponent, attempting to strike yet again.

Once again, Vespiquen was too fast, and swerved behind Thunder, this time grabbing her metal collar and hurling her against a nearby stalagmite. Her eyes glinting dangerously, Vespiquen launched a power gem attack at the dazed scyther, watching impassively as the attack found its mark, causing the scyther to cry out in pain.

The combee's leader was mildly surprised when Thunder stood up yet again. The scyther's breathing sounded a bit strange and painful, and she was bleeding in several places, but Thunder seemed only focused on winning the fight, however hopeless it was. Raising her scythes, Thunder prepared to continue the battle.

"Fool…" Vespiquen hissed, "You just don't know when to give up…"

* * *

Snowcrystal, Rosie, and Spark sat at the base of a massive stone column, guarded by dozens of combee. They could only watch helplessly as Stormblade was led to the same place, and made to sit at the base of the column. One of the combee flew up close to Snowcrystal, giving her a stern and angry glare. "You have stolen honey from our hive," she began, "And you have destroyed one of our chambers and a supply of honey." Spark and Snowcrystal glanced at each other in confusion, and Stormblade looked away, pretending to be closely studying the stalagmite column he was positioned next to. The combee continued, "Of course, it will need to be repaired. You will work in the tunnels for us for as long as it takes to repair it, and longer still, for your thievery. That, or you will be killed. Our leader will make the final decision."

Spark gave a small snarl. "They want us to work as…_slaves_?" He whispered angrily to Snowcrystal.

"Let's just hope they don't decide to kill us," Snowcrystal whispered back, before a strange noise from a cavern nearby interrupted her thoughts. It sounded almost like…a battle. "What…what was _that_?" she whispered, glancing in the direction of the sound.

* * *

Vespiquen slashed her claws across Thunder's face, narrowly avoiding the slash from a scythe that came close to severing her wing. Thunder gave a cry of fury before slashing at Vespiquen again, pure rage giving her strength despite her many injuries. The combee were still staying out of the fight, though Thunder knew that if the battle happened to go her way, that would quickly change.

Darting to avoid another power gem attack, Thunder tried to strike her enemy with wing attack, and this time, Vespiquen couldn't dodge fast enough. Thunder struck her across the face, pushing the other bug pokémon toward the tunnel that opened up to the main chamber. Thunder leaped toward Vespiquen with another wing attack, but her momentum caused both combatants to stumble out of Vespiquen's chamber and onto a rock ledge in the large room.

Thunder managed to make several deep gashes in the vespiquen's side and back before she was knocked back toward the cliff by another power gem attack. Leaping up as if nothing had happened, Thunder darted toward the wounded vespiquen again, before the combee had a chance to come to their leader's aid.

* * *

Unintentionally, Thunder had created a distraction. Sensing that their leader was in danger, the combee guarding Snowcrystal, Stormblade, Rosie and Spark flew off, their captives momentarily forgotten. "Let's get out of here!" Rosie cried, running toward a nearby tunnel.

"No!" cried Stormblade, "We have to help Thunder! Those combee are gonna kill her if we don't do something!"

Snowcrystal glanced at the massive swarms of combee flying toward the ledge where Thunder and the vespiquen had appeared. She knew in an instant that Stormblade was right-with those numbers, they could easily bring Thunder down and kill her…and there didn't seem to be anything they could do. Snowcrystal watched the combee with wide eyes. The largest group was almost to the ledge…

Then suddenly, all activity stopped. The combee seemed to have halted and were now simply hovering in midair. Wondering what was going on, Snowcrystal padded forward for a closer look. The combee didn't even seem to notice her. She padded across a rock ledge near where the swarm was clustered and glanced up at the ledge by Vespiquen's chamber, expecting to see Thunder already killed in the battle.

Instead, she saw something quite different. The combee's leader was lying helplessly on the stone floor, and as Snowcrystal crept closer along her rock ledge, she could see that Thunder had her blade pressed against the vespiquen's throat. The vespiquen kept completely still, knowing that if either she or the combee tried to attack, the scyther would kill her. "Thunder…" Snowcrystal whispered as quietly as she could, and though several combee turned to look at her, none of them moved, "Tell them to let us go!"

Thunder didn't reply, and simply turned to the defeated vespiquen. "Make them all leave!" she growled. Having no choice, Vespiquen called to the group of combee and ordered them to leave the chamber. Reluctantly they flew away, and though a few very loyal ones stayed put, unwilling to leave their beloved leader, they posed no threat to the five friends in such small numbers. "Now can we leave this place in peace?" Thunder asked, and the vespiquen slowly nodded.

Snowcrystal wasn't certain about Vespiquen's reply. What if she ordered all the combee to attack once Thunder let her go? Most of the combee had left, but that did not mean the few that had stayed behind couldn't go and retrieve them. Just as she was about to suggest to Thunder that she force the vespiquen to come with them until they left the hive, just to make sure, she noticed that the scyther had raised her other blade over the vespiquen's neck, obviously preparing to strike.

"Wait!" Snowcrystal cried, not understanding why Thunder was acting this way, "Stop!" However, her shout seemed to go unheard. Thunder's scythe flashed downwards and though the combee flew towards Vespiquen Snowcrystal knew they would be too late. The growlithe turned away, expecting to hear the awful sound any second. However, the sound that met her ears an instant later was quite different, and sounded a lot like metal clashing against metal. She looked up, surprised, but no one was more startled than Thunder when, instead of her scythe reaching the vespiquen's throat, it was stopped by another.

Thunder glanced upward, finding herself staring straight into Stormblade's eyes. "Stop," he told her, pushing both her blades away from Vespiquen, "You can't kill her."

"Why not?" Thunder replied, staring back at him.

"She was going to let us go," Stormblade replied, and pushed Thunder away, quickly standing between her and Vespiquen, "And after all, this was our fault to begin with. We were the ones who entered the hive and tried to steal honey. Besides, you won the fight. There was no reason for you to kill her." Thunder glanced back at Vespiquen, who was now flying upright, but making no move to attack. "We are going to leave now," Stormblade continued, "There's no need for any more fighting."

Thunder looked back at Stormblade, though this time not with anger. She seemed far more confused by his actions than angry.

Stormblade gently pushed Thunder toward the others, careful not to injure her further with his blades, whispering, "Go…Vespiquen will let us leave safely." Thunder did not reply, neither did she try to argue or resist as the five travelers swiftly exited the cavern through a large tunnel.

Once their leader was surely out of danger, the remaining combee quickly flew to aid Vespiquen, no longer paying any attention to the travelers. Now that she wasn't being chased by combee, Snowcrystal took a bit more time to find the right tunnel by scent, and followed her own scent back through the caves. They encountered no resistance. However, Snowcrystal knew the brief "peace" was only shock, and the combee would soon be over that, and the bee pokémon could very well just decide on getting revenge after all.

Upon reaching the cave entrance, the group quickly made their way down the rocky slope and into the fresh air. Thunder had to climb down as well, as she was injured from the fight. Once on safe ground, they raced away from the cliffs, stopping only when they were sure they weren't close enough to be seen directly from the cave. Snowcrystal was still unsure whether or not the combee would still want their payment for the stolen honey and the wrecked chamber. After a brief rest, they carried on, knowing they should be getting as far away as possible, just to be safe.

No one had spoken about the events that had taken place in the hive, namely Thunder's battle with the vespiquen, and how close she had come to killing her. Stormblade seemed to think there was a reason for Thunder's behavior, but uncertain about it all, he said nothing.

They hadn't gone much further when Thunder collapsed. Snowcrystal knew that her injuries had taken a great toll, and concerned, she ran to the scyther's side. By the time she reached her, Thunder had already stood back up. "What?" Thunder asked, "I'm just fine…" Walking past Snowcrystal, she hobbled forward a few paces, only to collapse again, this time in a faint.

Rosie turned and looked at the unconscious pokémon, rolling her eyes. "Right…" she muttered, "_Just fine_…"

* * *

Wildflame had seen Snowcrystal and the others leave the hive, from a distance. Standing up, the houndoom flicked her arrow-tipped tail in annoyance. "Why does Blazefang want me to befriend those idiots?" she muttered irritably to herself, "So he can find out the whereabouts of Articuno which they might not even know…"

Narrowing her eyes, the houndoom sulkily began to follow the growlithe's scent, not too happy about the plan now that she'd actually had time to think about it. She could only hope the growlithe knew _something _about where Articuno had gone. Growling under her breath, the houndoom hissed, "_Blazefang better be right_…"


	10. A Traitor in Their Midst

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 10-** **A Traitor in Their Midst**

The members of the houndour pack were taking a much needed rest. Blazefang had recently sent a group of houndour to hunt, and to his satisfaction, their hunt had been successful. Sitting on a patch of grass beneath a tree, Blazefang no longer felt rushed to find Articuno. With any luck, the growlithe would let the secret slip, and Wildflame could report back to him.

Idly pawing at the violet stone around his neck, Blazefang lay back on the grass, looking up at the clear sky. Of course, there was the planned attack, but the houndour had a feeling that it would go very, very smoothly.

* * *

Snowcrystal and the others were gathered around Thunder, who was still lying unconscious on the ground. "Is she all right?" Spark asked, glancing at Snowcrystal.

"I don't think her injuries are serious," the growlithe replied, peering at the gashes across the scyther's face, "I think she just needs-oh, she's waking up!"

Thunder stirred slightly, and opened her eyes. Instantly she leaped up; anger and alarm showing clearly on her face. "Arrgh! Get away from me!" she shouted, baring her fangs.

"Calm down," Spark muttered, "We were only-"

"Shut it!" Thunder snapped, "I don't want your help!"

"But you've been injured," Stormblade told her, "I think it's best if we stop for a while so you can rest and-"

Thunder stepped closer to Stormblade, an angry look in her eyes. "I don't see why we have to stop…" Turning away from him, Thunder limped past the others and on up ahead as she continued, "Rest? I don't need to rest! Let's keep going!" Snowcrystal knew better than to argue, and she and the others followed slowly, knowing it was best not to get Thunder any more aggravated than she already was.

They hadn't gone far when suddenly Snowcrystal's ears pricked up. A strange scent met her on the breeze, and she could tell someone was nearby. Just as she was about to mention it, a sleek black shape darted over a low hill at a startling speed and came to a halt in front of the group.

It was a houndoom, and she looked as if she'd been running for a long time, and in a panic too. She was breathing heavily, and was so exhausted, she nearly collapsed at Snowcrystal's feet. Snowcrystal stepped back, confused, and Stormblade looked fairly shocked. "Wait a minute…" the scyther muttered, "The houndour…I scented them back near the…"

No one was listening to him at the moment, as they were too focused on the houndoom who staggered forward a bit, coming to another halt in front of Snowcrystal. "Listen…" she gasped, "I've come a long way…My name is Wildflame, and I know that you are in terrible danger…as am I…Houndour from our old land by your mountain are tracking you!" She quieted a bit, still gasping for breath, and Spark glanced at Snowcrystal, who was still looking at the strange houndoom and didn't reply.

"Houndour…" Stormblade mused, "Yes, I saw some of them by the cliffs. Well, I couldn't see them all, but it seemed like a big pack. I overheard them saying something about tracking someone... You must have been one of them…" His eyes narrowed.

Wildflame waited a moment before replying, "Yes, I was one of them. Our leader, Firedash, sent us in a group led by a houndour called Blazefang out to follow the white growlithe who was seeking Articuno…and for a while, I helped them. But you see…our clan looks down on those who evolve. Firedash is still a houndour, as is her trusted servant Blazefang. I evolved…without fully realizing this…I was being attacked by an enemy pokémon and not thinking clearly at the time, and they drove me away after they saw I had evolved…" She pawed at a few deep scratches on the side of her muzzle. Snowcrystal could see that her flank had been clawed as well.

"But why?" Stormblade asked, still sounding suspicious, "Why did they drive you away just for evolving?"

"Our clan has a strong belief that our kind are powerful enough without having to evolve," Wildflame continued, "Those who evolve are looked down upon, as ones who weren't strong enough already, and had to resort to evolution to survive. We are considered the weak-it makes little sense to me, but that is the way it is. I just never knew they would react so…strongly…to my evolution. I ran from them, then decided I needed to warn you." She lifted her gaze toward Snowcrystal, and her gaze was hardened with anger, "I want to help you find Articuno…so I can stop Blazefang and Firedash's evil, and have my revenge what I once called my "clan". I care not about what will happen to Houndour territories anymore; I have no place there, and will seek a home elsewhere. This experience has opened my eyes to who Blazefang and Firedash are. They are not the leaders I once thought they were. Please, I only wish to help you, if you help me in return…for I have nowhere else to go…"

Her voice trailed off, and Snowcrystal gently touched her paw to the houndoom's shoulder. "Of course we'll help you," she replied, "I can understand. If this…Blazefang…did this to you, he can't have been any good of a leader." She paused a moment as the troubling thought of being pursued by a pack of houndour occurred to her. And that had been confirmed too, by what Stormblade had said about scenting houndour by the cliffs. The houndoom was speaking the truth, and she was far too distraught and panicked to be lying about being driven away either, and the claw marks further proved that.

"Thank you," Wildflame replied, lowering her head. "I must rest for a bit…but I will come with you…to help you in any way I can. In return, all I ask is that you help me…I do not know how to survive without a pack."

Snowcrystal and the others soon lay down for a short rest, despite Thunder's protests, as the scyther was getting further annoyed by everyone's worrying. Stormblade however, wasn't convinced. There was something not quite right about the houndoom, and he didn't trust her one bit.

* * *

As Wildflame rested beneath a shady tree, Stormblade watched her carefully. Sure, he had trusted Snowcrystal when he had first met her, but this houndoom was different, and Stormblade wasn't ready to trust her at all. Was she really a runaway from the houndoom pack, or was she their spy? He hadn't voiced his beliefs to anyone yet, but he planned to, soon.

Snowcrystal, meanwhile, was lying half-asleep next to a small tree, listening to the peaceful sound of the breeze rustling over the grass. The news that they were being followed had alarmed her, but at the moment, she felt strangely calm. Calm, but exhausted. In a matter of minutes, she had unintentionally drifted off to sleep…

* * *

She was having a strange dream. She was in a forest, running and running, though whether someone or something was chasing her, she wasn't sure. The forest faded away, and she could see clearly an underwater scene, as if she herself was underwater as well. Playful ocean pokémon swam past, and a vaporeon happily preformed a few flips in the water. Then the ocean scene faded as well, and she was in a gray, misty area, a lone figure standing in the distance.

After that, the dream made a little more sense. Snowcrystal was back at her mountain, near where her cave home was. However, instead of caves, there were cages containing pokémon resting in the snow. Their forms were hazy and shadowed out, and Snowcrystal couldn't tell what their species were. She crept closer, and noticed that a few of the cages were empty. Wishing to free the others, she ran toward the cages, when a voice hissed in her ear, stopping her. "If you release them, they will kill you…"

"What?" Snowcrystal shouted back, and received no answer nor saw anyone. She walked toward one of the cages, but to her frustration, it seemed so unnaturally dark within them that she still couldn't tell the pokémon's species. But no matter what the odd voice had said, she wasn't going to leave these pokémon to die in the cages. Carefully she lifted a claw to the latch. A sharp jolt coursed through her body like a very small bolt of electricity, making her draw back. A forlorn voice came from the cage.

"_You cannot free me…"_

"But…who are you?" Snowcrystal asked, "How did you get in the cage? Why can't I free you? Can I free the others?"

"No…" the sad voice responded, "You can't…You can't free them and you can't free me. You're time to help is past…"

"Wait!" cried Snowcrystal, "What do you mean?"

For a moment the pokémon's eyes gleamed through the darkness. "It's-"

"SNOWCRYSTAL!"

Snowcrystal jolted awake as Spark's shout rang through the area. "What is it?" she asked, alarmed.

"Oh, hi Snowcrystal," Spark replied cheerfully, "Didn't know you were taking a nap! Well, I have good news and bad news! The good news is, I found out that my thunderbolt attack can double as a bug zapper! The bad news is…" Spark glanced nervously behind him, and finished, "Thunder has no sense of humor. Good bye!" He ran off as Thunder appeared. Snowcrystal backed against the tree as Thunder tore past after him, shouting threats and insults.

Snowcrystal sighed and stood up, ignoring the two. The dream had been so real…yet so strange, though the more she thought about, the more stupid and absurd it seemed. "Probably just some silly dream," she muttered, "It didn't even make any sense." She shook scraps of leaves off her coat. "It was just so weird…"

It wasn't long before the group headed out again, now wary of their pursuers. Snowcrystal, her dream momentarily forgotten, led the group through the grassy plains and into a more rocky area. Wildflame had a bit of trouble keeping up, but she managed not to fall behind. Spark, a large clump of fur torn off his back, was completely silent the whole time. Snowcrystal stopped to allow Stormblade to catch up with her, as the scyther looked as if he had something important to say.

"Stormblade?" Snowcrystal asked, "What is it?"

"It's…Wildflame," Stormblade began hesitantly, "I don't think we should trust her. I know what she's saying about the houndour pack following us is true…but I'm not sure she's really on our side."

Snowcrystal sounded annoyed. "Stormblade," she whispered, "They drove her out! What do you want us to do? Just send her away after she offered to help us?"

"But I think she's working as a spy for the other houndour or something…" Stormblade whispered.

"And just what would we know that the houndour would want to know?" Snowcrystal replied, "Spark was right, you're too paranoid about everything!" She brushed past him, shaking her head.

Stormblade looked after her, confused. "Ok," he replied, "Maybe she's not a spy…but she's up to no good; that much I can tell."

"I don't see what you're talking about," Snowcrystal replied, "She came to us for help and to help us in return. If it's just because you saw those houndour tracking us before…you shouldn't judge her just because of her species-you of all pokémon should know how that feels!"

"I wasn't-" Stormblade began, but Snowcrystal had already left.

* * *

Wildflame hung back at the rear of the group, pausing to idly lick the scratches in her side. Well, it hadn't been her best idea, but it sure was convincing, and she'd made sure to wash any traces of blood from her claws before she'd approached the group. All that running back and forth across the fields had really tired her out, but her excitement at her plan's success seemed to have restored some of her energy. She was beginning to like this acting game; she felt she was rather good at it, and despite the fact that one of the scythers didn't seem to accept her, the others had seemed willing enough to let her join up with them for a while.

"Heh, what a bunch of idiots…" she smirked to herself as she pretended to limp after the group, "At least with them I won't be treated like some second-rate servant." At the thought of Blazefang, Wildflame rolled her eyes. Sure, he was smart, but he was bossy and his temporary leadership seemed to have gone to his head. She was glad to be rid of him for a while.

After a while Wildflame figured she could stop limping, for the sky was darkening and the others wouldn't notice, or they'd assume that her "injuries" were a bit better. As the group entered a grove of trees, Wildflame noticed the scyther called Stormblade giving her an odd look.

"I know you're up to something," he muttered coldly.

"I don't understand…" Wildflame's expression was one of confused innocence.

"Quit it…I know it's just an act…" Stormblade growled.

Wildflame's lips curled in the beginnings of a snarl. However, having overheard Snowcrystal's conversation with this scyther, she felt quite confident. "The growlithe was right…you should stop jumping to conclusions about every possible danger." She pushed past him, flicking her tail sharply across his burned shoulder. Turning around, she smirked, "Oh, and besides…no one will believe you anyway."

* * *

"Ow!" Rosie cried out sharply, "I stepped on a rock!"

"Oh yeah, well I stepped on about five already…with one foot!" Spark exclaimed loudly.

"Careful," Snowcrystal called from up ahead, "There's a lot of sharp rocks around here. I know it's dark, but we need to cover a lot more ground before we stop to rest."

Wildflame noticed Stormblade giving her another angry look. Making sure no one was looking, she carefully blew a small bit of fire at the scyther's foot, watching with satisfaction as Stormblade stumbled with a cry of pain. Running over to him, she leaned against his side as if to try and steady him, making sure she raked her horns across the scratches on his side slightly as she did so. Stormblade angrily leaped away, and Wildflame turned to Snowcrystal, whispering, "He tripped over a rock…I was only trying to help."

"Stormblade, quit it…" Snowcrystal whispered tiredly, walking on ahead. Stormblade gave her a look of disbelief before following, feeling infuriated at the unfairness of it all. He hadn't thought that Snowcrystal would act this way. It reminded him of when Spark used to get into trouble and blame it on him whenever the other pokémon or his trainer asked. Of course, they had always believed the "sweet little jolteon" rather than the scyther.

As he walked, he noticed a low-hanging tree branch and pushed past it. Noticing Wildflame following close behind him, he held the branch against the side of the tree with one blade while pretending to be stopping to catch his breath. As Wildflame approached, he moved his scythe, causing the branch to whip back in the houndoom's face. "Sorry about that!" he called as he hurried after the others. Wildflame angrily tore the branch out of her way and followed.

Stormblade gave a cry of shock as the houndoom suddenly rammed her horns into his side, knocking him to the ground. "Oh sorry…sorry…" Wildflame stuttered, "Here, let me help you. You know, you should really watch where you step."

"Get away from me!" Stormblade snarled, ignoring the odd looks the others were giving him. From the way they said nothing in his defense, he assumed they hadn't seen what Wildflame had just done.

As they continued walking, Stormblade made sure to stay as far away from Wildflame as possible, not willing to try and get any of the others to believe him at the moment. He kept shooting angry glances at the houndoom, who gave him either a confused look or a smirk, depending on who was looking at the time.

Stormblade was just about to suggest they stop for a while, when an earsplitting howl rang over the rocky plains. Everyone froze in their tracks and glanced around in the darkness. "It's Blazefang…" Wildflame growled, sinking her claws into the earth.

"What does he want?" Rosie asked in a slightly scared-sounding voice.

"I don't know…" Wildflame replied, "He never told me he would actually-"

Wildflame quieted just as nearly two dozen black shapes appeared over a small rise, their pelts almost silver-looking in the moonlight. The one at the very front, obviously the leader Blazefang, had a glowing purple stone that illuminated the small area around him. Snowcrystal backed up as the leader gave a loud, frightening cry.

"_ATTACK!_"


	11. Shadowflare

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 11-** **Shadowflare**

With many loud growls and snarls, the houndour pack leapt to the bottom of the rise and surged toward the group as one. _One furious, snarling pack…_ Snowcrystal stared at the oncoming enemies in terror. "There's far too many of them," she whispered, "Run!"

"No!" Wildflame shouted suddenly, "We won't get away that way. I know Blazefang, he's a coward-if we put up a fight, he'll turn tail and run." Without another word, she stood boldly in front of the group toward the oncoming houndour pack, and Snowcrystal, who couldn't bear to see Wildflame get attacked, summoned up her courage and stood beside her.

Spark stepped up beside Snowcrystal as his fur sharpened into the familiar pointed spines. Stormblade stood beside him, and by this time, the houndour were so close that Snowcrystal could see their fangs clearly even in the darkness.

A bright flash of light illuminated the area as a blinding bolt of lightning struck one of the closest houndour, who collapsed in a cloud of dust, only to stand up and shake himself off before running toward them again. Spark however, didn't seem to notice. "Did you see that?" he cried, turning to Stormblade, "I got him! I-arrrghhh!"

Spark let out a cry of pain as a flamethrower attack seared across his shoulder and the side of his face, knocking him backward. Stormblade ran toward the houndour who'd just fired the attack, who was now less than a few yards from the group. Seeing this, Snowcrystal leaped forward as well, just as a rather large and bulky-looking houndour ran in front of her. Before she could figure out how exactly she was going to fight this fierce opponent, he leaped toward her and locked his teeth savagely around her leg.

The houndour bit down harder, and for a moment Snowcrystal thought he would break her leg. Then, unexpectedly, Wildflame leapt toward the houndour, knocking him aside. "Leave her alone, Boneclaw!" she snarled. Snowcrystal stood up shakily and glanced around. Spark was still lying on the grass, holding his front leg over the injured side of his face. Stormblade was fighting off three houndour who were trying to reach the wounded jolteon, and Rosie had leaped on another houndour's back and was holding on with her claws while he tried to shake her off, snapping his jaws at her. Due to the fact that Rosie was making a complete fool out of him, Snowcrystal would have thought it amusing if it weren't for the seriousness of their current situation.

Snowcrystal ducked behind Stormblade to where Spark was lying, while the scyther and Wildflame did most of the work holding off the pack that now nearly surrounded them. To her surprise, Wildflame was doing exceptionally well; she had already sent a few of the houndour fleeing, though quite a few of them hung back, either wary of the fighters or awaiting their leader's orders. Snowcrystal couldn't see their leader…and now that she realized it, she couldn't see Thunder either, and if they ever needed her to fight like a mad pokémon, it was now.

"Spark!" she whispered quickly, "Stay here…I'm going to find Thunder…if any of them come near you, use pin missile or thunderbolt-I'll be back!" Spark nodded silently and staggered upright as Snowcrystal ran off through the bushes before the houndour could stop her, knowing all too well that she was practically hopeless in battle.

To her surprise, she found Thunder almost immediately, standing in the midst of some thorn bushes, heedless of the cuts and scratches she had received from them, among a small group of trees. The scyther glanced at Snowcrystal as she came to a halt; the sounds of battle very close by from the next clearing.

"Thunder! We need your help back there," Snowcrystal gasped. To her surprise, Thunder shook her head, turning away.

"I am not going near the battle," she stated simply.

"We need your help!" Snowcrystal cried, "Please!"

"No…" Thunder replied, and though it might have been her imagination, Snowcrystal thought the scyther's voice sounded a bit shaky, "I…don't want to…"

Snowcrystal stared at Thunder in disbelief. Never had she known this scyther to act this way. With Thunder, it had always been attack first and ask questions later. _Now she was acting as if…_Snowcrystal felt both confusion and hopelessness at the thought…_it was almost as if…she was afraid…_

The sounds of screaming and the bright light of flame shining over the rocks and sparse grass reminded Snowcrystal of how badly the others needed help. The white growlithe turned back to Thunder, and then said something even she herself hadn't been expecting, something crazy she never would have thought of saying to this scyther had she been thinking clearly. "I don't care whether you want to or not…the others are in trouble…you must fight the houndour! Do it…now!" As the words left her mouth, Snowcrystal wanted to take it back, but she made herself stand firm as she faced the scyther, waiting for her response. Thunder seemed more shocked than angry.

Snowcrystal noticed that Thunder's eyes suddenly had a faraway look, and she wasn't focusing on the growlithe at all. "No…" Thunder growled, and her gaze flicked back to Snowcrystal.

Snowcrystal leaped back with a cry of shock as a plume of bright red flame shot by them, catching a nearby tree on fire. She turned to see five houndour from Blazefang's pack all racing toward her. Seeing them, Thunder stepped from the bushes, glancing almost idly at one of her wings, the topmost edge of which had been burned through near the tip by the blast of flame.

Silently the scyther turned watched the approaching houndour, and her gaze hardened. And then all that had made her seem reluctant and afraid vanished. Without warning, she charged toward the group of houndour, fangs bared and scythes ready to strike.

The first houndour halted at the sight of the crazed scyther heading straight for him and his pack mates. His nerve failed him. With a yelp of fright, he turned, wanting to get as far away from the attacker as possible. A deep slice to his back brought him crashing to the ground. Only the thick bone-like bands across his back saved his life. Another of the houndour collapsed nearby, and the first houndour couldn't tell how badly injured he was.

Snowcrystal had already hurried back through the bushes toward Spark, who was now bleeding from a wound in his back leg as well. Rosie lie unconscious behind him. The clearing seemed to be full of chaos. Snowcrystal could see Blazefang motioning toward the other houndour, but they weren't paying much attention, as Stormblade, Spark, and Wildflame were still managing to hold their own, and the houndour were mainly focusing on attacking them.

Snowcrystal stayed near Spark, glad to see that his burns, although painful-looking, were neither deep nor serious. Near the other side of the clearing, three frightened houndour burst through the bushes-the remainder of the five who had threatened Thunder and Snowcrystal. An eerie, unnatural-sounding cry resounded through the area, causing several houndour to stop fighting and freeze where they stood. A moment later, Thunder burst through the bushes to land standing in the midst of the houndour pack. Many of the houndour backed off a bit, but Thunder showed no sign that she even realized that many of them were trying to flee.

Blazefang shuddered as he watched the scyther strike left and right, wounding all who came too close. Boneclaw, having just narrowly escaped having a limb severed, landed heavily on his paws as he leaped aside, launching a fire attack at Thunder. Blazefang was taken aback at the crazed look in the scyther's eyes, and he knew that if he didn't do something, his pack would soon be minus quite a few members.

"Fire attacks you idiots!" Blazefang called from his vantage point on a large boulder, "Kill her! Aim all your attacks at the scyther!"

The houndour, fearful for their lives, were quick to obey, using their type to their advantage. Thunder backed away as several flamethrower attacks blazed towards her. She managed to shield her face with her blades before a particularly strong flamethrower struck her, burning deeply into her shoulder. Thunder nearly collapsed, stopping her fall only by sinking her blade into the sandy earth beneath her. A rather bold houndour ran toward her, sinking his fangs into her leg while another, encouraged by his pack mate's bravery, tore at her injured wing.

Thunder managed to shake them off, but her attempts at striking them with her blades failed as they darted quickly away. Slowly she stood back on her feet, visibly trembling until she managed to stand up and stop herself from shaking. Snowcrystal, Spark, Wildflame and Stormblade broke off from their battle with a smaller group of houndour and ran toward the ones attacking Thunder, bringing a few down with electric, fire, and flying attacks, but they didn't stop enough of them in time. Several fire attacks struck Thunder at once, bringing her down. Several of the houndour leaped towards her, attacking with their fangs and claws.

Thunder managed to free herself from their attacks momentarily, pausing to catch her breath. Snowcrystal could see that Thunder was wounded badly in several places and covered with blood. Not houndour blood-her own. She looked as if she could pass out any second. Thunder staggered forward to face the houndour pack who were ready to put their flamethrower attacks to good use. "Kill her!" Blazefang roared.

"No!" Snowcrystal, Spark and Stormblade shouted simultaneously, but it was Stormblade who acted first. Leaping behind the group of houndour advancing toward Thunder, he knocked a few of them to the ground with the flat of his blade, while Thunder, unaware of this, took a running leap at the big stolid houndour called Boneclaw.

Thunder knew that her strength had been used up, that the odds had been stacked against her, but all the same she could not ignore the training and fighting techniques that had been burned into her mind until it was like an instinct. Fight no matter how much pain she was in until there was no possible way to continue. This was just like one of Master's battles.

Boneclaw froze as the scyther leaped toward him, blade raised. The houndour closed his eyes instinctively, knowing that there was no time to avoid it…

Yet his opponent never got to strike. Just as she leaped toward him, Thunder lost consciousness before she ever got to use her attack. Colliding into Boneclaw as she fell, the scythe that had been raised fell forward, so that the dull side struck the houndour instead. Boneclaw was sent flying backward as Thunder's momentum sent both her and the houndour plowing into the sandy earth. Coughing up dust and struggling for a moment, Boneclaw pushed the fainted scyther away from him with his back paws and scrambled toward Blazefang.

Stormblade turned toward Thunder's still form, and backing up, he could see the other houndour standing triumphantly beside the fallen warrior. Horrified, Stormblade could not tell if she was breathing. The scyther's gaze drifted toward the houndour giving orders. The leader. Blazefang, the one who had ordered Thunder to be killed. Turning around, Stormblade stared hard into the houndour's eyes. "Blazefang!" he yelled.

Blazefang stumbled backwards from his perch on the rock as Stormblade charged toward him. Boneclaw tried to help his leader by firing a flamethrower at the scyther, but Stormblade was moving far too fast to be hit. In seconds he reached Blazefang, who could only stumble backward frantically as the slashing scythes came within a mere inch or so of his face. Common sense told him to use a fire attack, but he couldn't manage it when he was using every bit of his energy to scramble back as quick as he could as the scyther's slashing blades came closer and closer to him.

Snowcrystal and Spark ran to Thunder's side, firing attacks at any houndour who came too close, while Wildflame protected Rosie. Snowcrystal could tell that Thunder was still alive, just out cold. She couldn't understand why Thunder hadn't run and found shelter when she was too weak to carry on. Instead, she had kept fighting until she passed out from pain and blood loss. Snowcrystal didn't understand; it just didn't make sense. Hadn't Thunder been unwilling to fight just before?

A couple houndour yelped in pain and fled from the battle as a thunderbolt from Spark struck them. Snowcrystal noticed with mild surprise that most of the houndour were fleeing now.

Wildflame, meanwhile, was both exhausted and confused-hadn't Blazefang said this would be a quick mock battle? Noticing Blazefang being driven back by Stormblade, Wildflame could do nothing but hope that Blazefang knew what he was doing.

Blazefang stared at Stormblade in terror as one of the scyther's blades pierced his paw. The houndour stumbled, landing flat on his back as Stormblade stood over him. Blazefang's eyes widened in horror as he noticed that the pack had fled-he was left alone. With a strength born of desperation, he managed to fire a blast of flame at Stormblade, who dodged, landing easily to one side. Blazefang stood up and backed away, Stormblade's gaze still boring into him.

It was then that Blazefang felt that same strange feeling…the feeling he had felt after he had woken up in the forest after passing out when he'd touched the purple stone and heard the word Shadowflare. It was as if some new power within him was waiting to be released-the power the stone had given him…Shadowflare.

Stormblade was taken aback when Blazefang suddenly smirked, and there was something in the houndour's gaze that frightened him. Snowcrystal also sensed something was amiss, and raised her head just in time to see Blazefang launch another fire attack.

Yet it was the strangest attack she had ever seen. Blazefang's eyes seemed to glow a bright yellowish-white as he fired it, and the attack itself looked somewhat like flamethrower. However, it glowed an almost blinding white-hot, with a tint of blue, though streaks and specks of purplish black flickered over the beam. Snowcrystal's eyes went wide with shock and she almost turned away from the burning intensity of the brilliant white flames.

Stormblade didn't need to stop and look to know that it was bad news. Without hesitating for an instant he turned and darted to the right of the oncoming inferno. However, to everyone's shock_, the flames swerved and followed him._ Stormblade, even with the natural born speed of a scyther, couldn't outrun it. Doing the only other thing he could think of, he darted behind a large tree, yet it did him no good. The raging flames blasted completely through the trunk, colliding into Stormblade's body and sending him sprawling on the ground, a moment before the burning and severed top half of the tree toppled over and crashed down, landing across the scyther's back.

For a moment, Blazefang only stared stupidly at the motionless Stormblade and the burning tree that had been severed completely through near its halfway point; the section where the attack had struck completely burned away. The houndour lowered his gaze and followed the deep scorch marks in the ground leading to the tree; every bit of grass in its path had been burned to nothing, and even the ground looked scorched.

Blazefang noticed a small bit of white flame burning a clump of grass nearby, and backed away. "What the-what _is_ this?" he whispered to himself, looking horrified. Not even fire blast had the kind of power to blast completely through a large tree instantly, and what kind of attack followed after its enemy? Whatever this was-there was nothing natural about it. Blazefang reached up to the violet stone with his claws and tore it from his neck, flinging it onto the blackened earth before turning and fleeing after his pack.

Snowcrystal hardly noticed him. She ran to the side of the tree, nudging Stormblade's still form. Only his head, wings, and a part of his blades were visible from beneath the thick tree trunk, and to Snowcrystal's dismay, Stormblade gave no response.

Spark, still stunned, was sitting beside Thunder, who was beginning to come around, and Rosie, who had already woken up. Wildflame sat a few yards away, looking just as shocked.

"What's going on?" Thunder demanded in a weak voice, making Snowcrystal look up. However, she didn't reply, even when Spark limped over.

"Stormblade…" he whispered, "What happened? …How…"

"He's dead," Thunder stated calmly as she hobbled over, "What more do you want to know?" Spark didn't reply, and Snowcrystal frantically slammed her body against the tree trunk, trying to move it. The fire was slowly dying down, but it was still spreading across the tree's length. Again and again Snowcrystal tried to move the large tree, but it wouldn't budge. "Stop that," Thunder muttered, "He's _dead_. As in…not going to move…ever again! I see no point in tiring yourself out trying to move that tree. Stormblade's dead. Forget it and move on."

"No…" Snowcrystal whispered. She was too tired to continue, and could only claw feebly at the tree's bark. No matter what Thunder said, Snowcrystal couldn't bring herself to believe her. "You're wrong…he can't be dead."

"Face it," Thunder stated emotionlessly, "Everyone dies. I don't see why you should be making such a fuss over it."

Snowcrystal didn't reply. She slowly slid to the ground, resting her head against the side of the tree, feeling hopeless. She felt as if…everything was over now…the journey…everything… "Snowcrystal…" she looked up to see Spark's face close to hers. She turned away, not believing that any comfort he could give her could ever make her feel any better. "Snowcrystal…Stormblade's still alive."

Snowcrystal lifted her head again, staring straight into Spark's eyes. "He's…alive?"

Spark nodded, and Thunder only looked mildly surprised. Rosie, who had stayed back until then, stood up and padded away from Wildflame and toward the tree. "Is he…dead?" she asked in a scared voice, not having heard what Spark had just told Snowcrystal.

"No…" Spark answered, "But…"

Thunder stepped up to where Stormblade lay, close enough to hear his shallow breathing. "Ok, well, this is nice and all," the scyther muttered, "But you do realize he won't last longer than a few minutes. That's life. We better get going now before the blood attracts any unfriendly visitors."

"What?" Snowcrystal cried, shocked, "You expect us to just _leave _him here?" Thunder merely shrugged and turned away. Rage built up inside Snowcrystal, and she wanted to claw Thunder in the face. How could she be so indifferent? Deciding to forget about it for the moment, she pushed against the tree again, knowing all too well that the fire was still spreading slowly along the trunk. "Everyone…help me!" She cried, and Spark, Rosie, and even Wildflame approached her and pushed against the fallen tree as well.

At last their efforts combined managed to push the blazing trunk away from Stormblade, who still lay prone on the ground. Snowcrystal ran to his side, glancing over the deep and serious burns that covered the top half of his body. Most of the scyther's natural armor on his back and shoulders had been burned away, exposing charred flesh beneath, and sections of his wings had been burned through as well. Thunder simply stared at him impassively, not seeming at all concerned or shocked at Stormblade's condition. Snowcrystal, however, stepped closer. "Stormblade…" she whispered, carefully nudging his side. The scyther, still unconscious, didn't respond.

Spark and Rosie also approached, but Wildflame stood back, simply watching. Snowcrystal carefully examined the scyther's wounds. The worst of the burns by far were on his back, wings, and shoulders, but there were also severe burns across his arms, chest, and face as well. All of them were far worse than the burn wounds Thunder and Spark had sustained. Snowcrystal stared in shock-she had seen pokémon receive wounds from fire attacks before, but this was something else entirely. Even Thunder looked healthy compared to the still figure lying at her feet, and in addition to the burns, Stormblade's leg had been badly mangled from the tree's fall.

"I think he'll live," Snowcrystal said at last, "But not for long if we don't get help."

"Where are we supposed to get help _from_?" Rosie asked, "We're in the middle of nowhere with a houndour pack chasing us, and one of them knows that freaky attack…"

"Guys…" Spark began hesitantly, "I think…I know what that attack was…it may sound strange, but…"

"And how do you know what the heck that was?" Rosie snapped, and Spark didn't answer.

"Look," Wildflame spoke up, "Blazefang's pack will be after us again soon. We must keep going. Once Stormblade wakes up, he'll have to _keep_ up. We need to get out of here."

As if in answer to Wildflame's statement, Stormblade began to stir. Thunder, who had been quietly resting, looked up and glanced toward Stormblade, waiting to see what he would do.

"Stormblade?" Snowcrystal whispered again, just as the scyther opened his eyes and turned his head slightly to look at her.

"Snowcrystal…is Thunder…the others…alive?" Stormblade's voice sounded strange to Snowcrystal, not like she was used to hearing it. He sounded weak and in great pain, rather than strong and brave like he had always seemed to her.

"Yes," she answered softly, "Everyone's all right…mostly…Spark and Thunder are injured, but they'll be okay in a little while." Really, she wasn't so sure, but their injuries weren't as bad as his, and she didn't want Stormblade to worry.

"Psh…" Thunder muttered, rolling her eyes, "Well if he's awake, let's get a move on already!"

Stormblade made no move to rise, and just lay completely still. "Please get up," Rosie told him, "We have to get out of here."

To Snowcrystal's surprise, Stormblade did try to stagger to his feet, though it was obviously paining him, and she noticed that he wasn't putting any weight on his injured leg, keeping it off the ground and using his scythes to help himself stand instead. Snowcrystal stood beside the injured scyther to try and help steady him, but it didn't seem to help much, as she was so small compared to him. Stormblade collapsed to the ground a moment later, and didn't try to get up again, but lay shaking uncontrollably, his eyes closed tightly.

"Oh come on!" Thunder growled impatiently, kicking Stormblade in the side, "Get up! You're not dead!"

"Stop it!" Snowcrystal yelled. She turned toward Stormblade, encouraging him to stand up again; knowing that if he didn't, the others would leave him behind.

"Look, we _have _to get out of here," Wildflame whispered urgently, "You have to get him to move!"

"Just leaving him there would make life a lot easier," Thunder muttered under her breath.

Snowcrystal tried to help Stormblade, but she was too small, and wasn't much help at all. Spark couldn't do anything in his wounded state, and Snowcrystal wasn't about to ask for help from Wildflame or Thunder. At last Stormblade managed to stand again, and Rosie and Thunder ran on ahead, while the others followed a bit more slowly.

Spark was no longer his usual talkative self, and his injured shoulder seemed to be giving the jolteon a lot of grief. Rosie's wounds were minor, as were Wildflame's, though the houndoom stayed back a bit. Snowcrystal assumed she must be tired still. Thunder was up ahead, moving rather quickly despite her wounds, acting as if they weren't there, just as she had done before.

Snowcrystal soon found herself at the back of the group, feeling lost and hopeless. She glanced upward as a loud thunderclap sounded overhead. Soon after, rain pelted down on the travelers, making the going far more muddy and slippery. Snowcrystal paused for a rest against a large rock, feeling tears coming to her eyes.

She felt as if everything was lost now…

* * *

Stormblade cried out as he stumbled once again over the now slippery wet rocks. He struggled to get up again for a few agonizing seconds before he realized that someone was standing beside him. Turning around, he was surprised to see Wildflame standing there.

Attempting to growl as he staggered upright, Stormblade made an effort to get into a battle stance, or as close to one as he could get without injuring his broken leg further. "Get _away_ from me!" he hissed from between clenched teeth.

The houndoom said nothing as she stepped closer to the wounded scyther, offering him her shoulder to lean on. Stormblade stared back uncertainly for a moment before he accepted her help, allowing Wildflame to assist him over the rocks, as together they gradually followed the others under the rain-filled sky.


	12. Spark's Tale

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 12-** **Spark's Tale**

Rain lashed down ceaselessly, while lightning flashed across the sky. The ground at Snowcrystal's feet had turned to pebbly mud, and because of her small size, it was very difficult to wade through. Rosie was also having a considerable amount of trouble, as was Stormblade, mainly for the fact that couldn't fly and could only use one leg. After Snowcrystal stumbled in the thick mud yet again, only making her fur even filthier, she staggered upright and turned to the others behind her.

"Let's stop and rest…"

"What, is it the rain?" Thunder asked, landing beside Snowcrystal. Unlike the growlithe, she had been able to fly over the mud. "You know, I don't see what's so bad about rain…it's water, and that's always a good thing."

"Well it's making everyone exhausted," Snowcrystal replied, shaking mud from her paws. Her fur hardly looked white anymore, and she knew that the mud getting into her wounds couldn't be good. "We need to rest. You might be able to keep going, but the rest of us can't."

"Fine," mumbled Thunder, as she followed Snowcrystal to a group of large trees. Spark limped after them along with Rosie, and Stormblade followed last, Wildflame still supporting him along the way.

Underneath the trees, the six pokémon had a bit of shelter from the rain, but the ground was just as muddy underpaw. Spark tried to shake his fur dry, which only splattered Snowcrystal and Rosie with mud. Stormblade was lying down against a tree, not bothering to try and find a less muddy spot. Snowcrystal realized he was probably too weak, as he could barely walk by himself.

Standing up, Snowcrystal padded over to where Spark, Rosie, Wildflame, and Thunder were, letting Stormblade rest. "Listen," she told the others, "We need to find out what to do. Obviously Stormblade needs help-with his leg that badly injured he probably won't ever walk again unless we find someone who knows something about healing. And ...well, not just Stormblade, but you two as well," she glanced toward Thunder and Spark, "Your wounds could get infected…and pokémon die from that."

"I'll be fine," Thunder shrugged, "Master never treated my wounds, unless they were very serious, and nothing ever happened to me."

"Well first things first," Rosie spoke up, "We should focus on finding food as soon as this rain lets up, and we should rest for the time being. We have to be as strong as possible, especially Stormblade."

"She has a point," Wildflame agreed.

Snowcrystal nodded, realizing that except for the berries back in the forest, they hadn't been able to find any food other than the honey in the combee hive, and Stormblade hadn't eaten any of either, with the exception of a few rawst berries that Rosie had found. It been two days since she had met Stormblade and Spark, and now that she thought about it, none of them had really had much luck in finding food. "Yes," she replied, "Those who can should try and hunt or find berries as soon as the storm's passed. I probably couldn't catch anything, because of my white fur, so I could stay here with Stormblade…and Spark, I think you should be resting too, and so should you, Thunder."

"If you're suggesting I'm too weak to hunt for myself, you're wrong," Thunder replied, narrowing her eyes, "I'm not so helpless that I need others to bring food to me."

"All right," Snowcrystal sighed, knowing there was no point in arguing with her, "Wildflame and Thunder can hunt, and Rosie, can you search for other types of food, like berries?" The vulpix nodded. "Well, after we've rested a bit," Snowcrystal continued, "We need to find a pokémon who knows about healing…there were only a few healers in my clan, and I never really had the chance to learn anything from them. And who knows what that fire attack was capable of doing…I've never seen burns that bad, and I've lived with fire pokémon all my life."

"All made worse by the fact that he's a bug type," Wildflame put in, "I know you're right about finding a healer-let's face it, he's not going to last much longer if we don't."

Snowcrystal nodded silently, and all around the group of five pokémon huddled together beneath the trees, the rain seemed to be stopping, or at the least, it wasn't raining as hard as it had been. "Well, we'll be able to hunt soon," Wildflame whispered.

"Everyone," Spark said slowly, "You know that attack Blazefang used? Well I think I might know what it is. I think it was Shadowflare."

"Well that's a big help," Rosie scoffed, "You know what it's called, and how does that help us?"

Snowcrystal turned to Spark, giving him a strange look. "You had a trainer…have you seen that attack used before?"

Spark shook his head vigorously. "No! Of course I've never seen the attack before! In fact, I'm not completely sure that was Shadowflare. I mean, where on earth would Blazefang learn a Forbidden Attack?"

Wildflame looked at Spark curiously. "Forbidden Attack?" she repeated, "What is that?"

Spark quieted down, as if unwilling to go on. "Spark," Snowcrystal urged him, "What _is_ a Forbidden Attack?"

Spark glanced over at Stormblade, who was too far away from the group to hear anything over the sound of rain and thunder, and turned back to the others. "Well," the jolteon began uneasily, "It was something I heard when I was young, an eevee. My mother used to tell me and my sisters the story. My mother had a trainer, and he told it to his pokémon, and it was supposedly some sort of legend or something. I think I asked my parents if it was true once, and they told me it wasn't, but some humans and pokémon seemed to believe it. I'm surprised Stormblade hasn't heard."

"Well, what was the story?" Thunder asked with mild interest, sitting down and watching Spark through half-closed eyes.

"Uh, well…it went something like this…" he mumbled, looking away from the scyther, "I don't remember it in great detail, but I can pretty much recall the gist of it. It was told to me by mother who heard it from her trainer, so I'm not sure how much of it is actually true…" he paused for a moment, then went on, "Well, in the story, there were a group of powerful pokémon long ago. They weren't legendaries, but normal pokémon; though they were exceedingly strong for their kind. Well, from what I could tell, no one who knew about this story was quite certain of their species, but they watched over a land free from humans and marauding pokémon, keeping the area's inhabitants safe.

"Well, one day, they began to notice that a few young pokémon, all of different elemental types, started to develop strange powers. These powers came in the form of completely unique attacks only they could perform. As these young pokémon practiced their strange gifts, the attacks became shockingly powerful, soon earning frightening names the other pokémon came to fear. There was an attack for fire, Shadowflare, an attack for ice, Deathfreeze, and others, though I can't remember the names for most of them. I do remember my father describing Shadowflare to me…just like it looked when Blazefang used it." Spark paused again to glance at the others. Snowcrystal and Wildflame looked intrigued, while Rosie and Thunder simply looked as if they thought the whole thing was ridiculous. Despite this, he kept going,

"Well, the attacks got so out of control that they destroyed the once peaceful land, growing stronger every time they were used. These powers corrupted the minds of those who used them, causing them to create mass devastation. The strange power of these attacks also seemed to be able to transfer from one pokémon to another of their same type, giving that pokémon the power of the attack, yet only if the first user has passed away. For this reason, others seeking to gain these powers sought to kill those who already possessed them. The strong pokémon who watched over the lands knew they had to do something to stop all this before it was too late. So somehow, they managed to steal the powers away from the young pokémon without causing any death, but they could not destroy those powers. However, the strong pokémon still managed to seal the powers away into different objects-stones and pebbles, or gems, something not easily broken, and hid them away in remote locations, where no one would ever think to look for them. Gradually the attacks' powers diminished, though it is said that they're still out there, waiting for a pokémon of the right type to stumble upon them, to use the attacks again and again and make them grow stronger. However, it is also said that all these attacks, at their most powerful form, will never stop until they've destroyed everything in their path. Shadowflare, for example, could become a dark and unstoppable wildfire that consumes everything it touches. No one was ever quite sure where the attacks came from or why they even existed, but the attacks stayed hidden and were never found. Still, they were not forgotten, and they became known as the Forbidden Attacks."

Spark paused for a moment, and then mumbled, "Well, that's how it went, roughly. I don't remember much, but then again I never thought I'd have to remember an eevee kit's story for anything. Seems pretty crazy though, doesn't it? The things I believed when I was little…" He laughed nervously.

"Spark, I think it's true, at least the part about the powers being sealed away," Snowcrystal replied softly, "And Blazefang must have used that attack for the first time-you saw how shocked he was…"

"But if the story's true," Spark whispered, "If he uses it again, it could take control of his mind…"

"He looked pretty scared of it to me," Rosie stated, "I don't think he'd want to use it anymore."

"Maybe…" Wildflame whispered, "But Blazefang has been known to be power-hungry. Once he gets over the shock, he could very well try it again. Let's just hope the part about the attacks growing stronger isn't true."

"Spark," Snowcrystal said quietly, "You said you knew the names of some of these attacks. What do you know about Shadowflare, the one you said Blazefang used?" She glanced over at Stormblade, who was still lying down, and then to Spark again.

"Well, obviously when I was young I was curious about the Forbidden Attacks, and asked about them. Of course, I'm not sure if all this is true or not, considering that everyone in my family believed it to be just a story to scare little pokémon… But my dad used to like telling me how dangerous all the attacks were, probably trying to scare _me _or something. He said that a Forbidden Attack at its less-powerful stage won't usually kill, though a wound from one will never heal. He also told me the bit about them increasing in power and such, but that's all I can remember at the moment..."

"Never heals, huh?" Rosie repeated, "Your dad better have been making_ that_ part up."

"Okay, okay!" Spark shouted, "I don't know for sure, but yet…the whole Forbidden Attacks legend is a human thing…_they _probably made it up."

"If they made it up how did Blazefang use Shadowflare?" asked Snowcrystal.

"I…don't…know!" Spark replied, gritting his teeth in frustration, "I told you what I heard, but apparently it was just a legend. Humans believed that sort of junk, most trainers do! You hear them going on and on about trying to find and see legendary pokémon and whatnot, they're always fascinated with that sort of thing. Maybe Shadowflare's just some rare weird attack that some attention-seeking human made into a myth-sorta thing. And of course they always write books about these different legends and myths and other humans-"

"Wait," Snowcrystal interrupted, "What did you say humans do?"

Spark paused for a moment. "Uh…make up stuff, write books about legends?"

"What are books?" Snowcrystal asked, confused.

"There um…flat objects made out of paper with pictures or markings in them that humans can somehow understand," Spark tried to explain, "My trainer used to read them to me and the other pokémon sometimes, since we can understand what he said, but we couldn't understand the markings in the books. It was really boring actually…especially this one book which just went on and on about the stupidest-"

"But you said humans can understand the markings," Snowcrystal interrupted, "What if we can find a human who really knows whether the Forbidden Attacks are really what they are in the story?"

"That's…crazy…" Spark muttered, "Humans can't understand us…and besides, even humans aren't sure about whether legends are true. Yes, I know that some of them spend a lot of time or even their entire lives searching for answers, but most of the legends are probably just stories."

"But maybe there's more to this…story you haven't heard? Or a different version of it?" Snowcrystal asked, "If Shadowflare really was like how it was described to you, and the description matched Blazefang's attack perfectly like you said, couldn't other parts of the legend be true? Maybe what some humans think is fake is really real?"

"Ok then, well next time I see a human, I'll ask him," Rosie scoffed.

"She's right," Spark agreed, "Humans can't understand pokémon, like I said before, and if they could, they probably couldn't help us. I think we should just stay clear of Blazefang and hope he doesn't use Shadowflare again. Forbidden Attack or not, that attack _was_ pretty powerful."

"Who believes that sort of thing anyway?" Thunder muttered, standing up and walking away, "Humans only want to be pokémon's Masters. They don't help pokémon."

Suddenly a scowl appeared on Spark's face. He darted in front of Thunder, glaring at her. Snowcrystal was surprised to see that he actually looked angry. "Take…that…back!" he snarled.

"Why?" Thunder replied, not seeming threatened in the least, "It's true."

"It is not!" Spark shouted back, "My trainer-"

"If you loved your precious Master so much why are you here in the wild?" Thunder replied icily, "Not that I can see any way a pokémon could care about a human."

"Just…Shut up!" Spark cried, turning around and firing a pin missile at the scyther's face.

Thunder didn't even flinch, but simply turned her head slightly to avoid getting the spines fired in her eyes. Leaping at Spark, she aimed a slash attack, and though Spark dodged, he couldn't avoid getting a long cut across his side. Both pokémon looked ready to keep fighting, but Snowcrystal darted between them.

"Stop!" she shouted, "Fighting's not going to do anything!" To her surprise, Thunder didn't make an angry reply, but instead simply turned and left. Glaring in anger, Snowcrystal rounded on Spark. "What were you thinking?" she cried, "We can't be fighting now! Do you want to end up more injured?"

"But-" Spark began, "Oh come on,_ Thunder_ was the one going to get injured. Type advantage!" He smirked.

"She would have chopped your head off," Rosie stated bluntly, and Spark made a face at her.

"Just stop arguing everyone," Snowcrystal sighed, her anger vanishing as she realized just how exhausted she was, "Look, it's not raining as hard now, maybe those who were going to search should try and find some food now."

"Fine," Spark mumbled, "But I'll stay right here."

"Well, good bye then…" Rosie replied, as she and Wildflame ran past Snowcrystal and Spark and over a large group of rocks.

Snowcrystal sighed and padded over to Spark. "Look, I'm sorry…I know that humans aren't all bad, but Thunder probably doesn't know otherwise. I think you should just leave her alone."

"Whatever…" Spark muttered, turning away from her.

Snowcrystal sighed and padded away from him, not wanting to argue anymore. If they didn't find a way to work together soon, they would truly be lost.

* * *

Blazefang and his pack were unable to go on for the time being. Some of the houndour had been injured very badly by the scyther, and they would need a while to rest. That meant that the pack was stuck there for the time being. Blazefang, at least, was glad that Wildflame would still be traveling with the growlithe's group; he knew that if they got any closer to Articuno, she would know. At least that much he could count on.

While the other houndour practiced battling or hunted, Blazefang sheltered from the rain beneath a tree, conversing with two other houndour in low tones.

"C'mon Blazefang, think about what you have here…I mean, that attack killed that scyther instantly!" Boneclaw whispered to Blazefang.

"But it followed him through the air…I mean, what sort of attack does _that_?" Blazefang snarled back, "I have no idea what sort of thing this attack is capable of!"

The third houndour in the group, a mangy-looking pokémon called Flarefire, spoke up, "I don't see what's so terrible about having a really powerful attack, Blazefang, but if you don't like it, that's your choice. Just remember, it did get you out of danger when that scyther attacked you."

"Maybe…" Blazefang muttered, turning away from Flarefire and Boneclaw, "But I still don't understand it…"

* * *

Darting through the trees unnoticed, an aipom made his way in the direction of a small grove of fruit trees. It was a place he knew well, and his trainer didn't mind if he took food from the wild; it was better than getting in trouble after he was caught stealing. Keeping a wary eye out for predators, he scampered from one branch to the next. The aipom stopped suddenly as he noticed what looked to be a near-dying scyther right below the branch he was balancing on.

The aipom's first instinct was to flee, but he stopped himself, realizing that this scyther couldn't do him much harm in its current state. Now over the initial shock, he sat back on the branch and looked at Stormblade curiously. After a minute or so with no movement at all from the scyther, the aipom idly broke off a small bit of the branch and held it over the still pokémon. He stopped for a moment, wondering if it was at all wise to throw something at a dangerous predator. Then, deciding he didn't care, he dropped the branch on the scyther. Stormblade gave a small cry and stirred slightly, but didn't look up. However, the fact that he had moved at all made the aipom dart to a higher branch out of panic. When Stormblade didn't attack him, he lost interest, and continued on his way, unknowingly in the direction of Wildflame and Thunder.


	13. A New Threat

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 13-** **A New Threat**

At first, the wandering aipom had no idea that he was heading in the direction of two large predators. However, luckily for him, the moment he came upon Wildflame and Thunder, they had been distracted by something else. Quietly bolting up a tree trunk, he watched them curiously for a few seconds, then scampered back toward the area where he'd seen the other scyther before. This was certainly strange…what on earth would two scyther and a houndoom be doing _here_?

* * *

Wildflame was loosing her patience. Thunder had scared away every prey pokémon they had managed to find long before either of them had gotten close enough to strike. The houndoom was beginning to believe that Thunder didn't know the first thing about hunting. "All right, listen!" Wildflame growled suddenly, turning to the scyther, "This isn't working out at all. Haven't you ever learned to hunt before?"

"Master never taught me," Thunder replied.

"I meant _before_ you were captured!" Wildflame growled in annoyance, lashing her tail.

"I don't remember anything before I was captured!" Thunder snapped, "Besides, I was still very young then. And I can't hunt with this chain…other pokémon can hear it…every time I move." She bit down on the shackle around her arm as if in some vain attempt to break it, but as usual, it was barely even scratched.

"Fine, then don't hunt at all," Wildflame retorted, "I'll do the hunting; you just stay here and keep quiet!" She stalked off, and Thunder turned away without a reply, listening to the sound of the houndoom's pawsteps as she padded away.

* * *

Snowcrystal didn't like having to wait for the others to return. Partly she was worried about their safety, but she also wished she could have gone with them so that she could hunt as well. Everyone in the group needed it, and she wished that she could help out. She also hated having to wait in this rocky clearing where there were sharp pebbles and mud everywhere she stepped. Even the sheltered spot beneath the trees was wet and muddy, making the three pokémon who stayed behind completely miserable. Snowcrystal briefly wondered if the mud would disguise her fur enough to allow her to hunt with the others, but she knew she couldn't leave Stormblade there to try it.

Spark was curled up beneath one of the trees, his back turned to the others. Snowcrystal knew that his burns were not serious, yet there was still the risk of infection. She figured that Spark probably just wanted to be left alone for a while, and decided to go check on Stormblade.

As she approached the motionless scyther, she was reminded of just how serious his injuries were. The burns along his back, arms, and wings looked even more deep and serious than she had remembered, and his leg still looked badly mangled and was covered in drying blood. "Stormblade?" she whispered, and the scyther barely turned his head to look at her.

She was surprised to see that he was actually shaking, as if cold. "Are you…all right?" she asked, realizing how stupid the question was right after she asked it. Stormblade didn't answer. "Well, the others should be back soon," Snowcrystal continued without waiting any longer for him to speak, "Maybe you and someone else can stay here, while the rest of us go look for a pokémon who can help you."

"All right…" Stormblade replied without any other comment as he lay his head back down and closed his eyes.

"Wait a minute," Spark called suddenly from where he was resting nearby, "We can't split up! What if Blazefang's pack attacks us again? We have to be strong, and to be strong, we have to stick together!"

"I'm not going," Stormblade said quietly, "I'll be fine on my own for a little while."

"Oh really…" Spark muttered, rolling his eyes. "Look, I'll be traveling, and just look at me! I may be injured, but that's not going to stop me."

Stormblade lifted his head, and though he tried to stand, all he could really do was sit up slightly. "Well, I'm sure you could keep up with the others, but I probably wouldn't…make it very far."

"Spark, he's right," Snowcrystal agreed, "I think we should-"

"And let Blazefang's pack catch up to us?" Spark shouted, "I don't think so…You can't give up Stormblade! You were always giving up back in the days when we were trainer's pokémon! Justin _always_ thought you were just too lazy to battle for him half of the time!"

"I don't care what Justin thought!" Stormblade shouted, and it shocked Snowcrystal that he had actually yelled, when before he'd hardly made any sound at all.

"Who's Justin?" she asked, puzzled, looking from Spark to Stormblade.

"Our trainer!" Spark replied.

"He's not our trainer anymore!" Stormblade growled, and Spark glared at him.

"I know you don't care…" Spark muttered, "Justin never really liked you! You never understood what a great trainer he was…Of course you wouldn't understand that I miss him…"

"Justin abandoned us…" Stormblade replied.

"Justin _had_ to abandon us and it was all your fault!" Spark yelled.

"You know what really happened!" Stormblade shouted back, and there was a sense of betrayal in his voice.

"Well it still happened!" Spark growled.

"What did you expect me to do?" Stormblade replied, but Snowcrystal stepped in front of Spark, and he didn't explain further.

"Spark, stop this!" Snowcrystal cried, "Whatever happened, it's in the past now…and right now, we have more important things to think about than arguing!"

Spark didn't reply, but merely looked down at his paws. Snowcrystal was about to say something, when Wildflame and Thunder reappeared. Wildflame was carrying the limp body of a small spearow, while Thunder just looked exhausted and had no prey to show for it.

"Is…that all you caught?" Spark asked, shocked.

Wildflame set down the prey and nodded, giving Spark an annoyed glare, and Snowcrystal looked dismayed. "Rosie should be back soon, though," she stated, "Maybe she's found some berries, and those who can should eat those." She looked over at Thunder, who looked a lot less strong than she usually did, as if she had suddenly lost nearly all her strength. The scyther's wounds had opened up again, and some of them, which were probably quite a few weeks old, were bleeding rather badly. And now, instead of simply not minding it, it actually looked as if it pained her to walk, and that alone surprised Snowcrystal; Thunder hadn't minded the pain before, or at least had been able to hide it well.

Thunder didn't speak to the others as she turned and walked away, not even giving a glance when Snowcrystal called out to her. Before anyone could try and stop her, she had already vanished into the trees. "What's up with her?" Spark muttered, casting an odd glance in the direction Thunder had gone.

"What's up with who?" Rosie's voice sounded from nearby, and the vulpix trotted into the clearing, dragging a small branch of berries.

"Eh…nothing," Spark replied, walking over to sniff the berries.

Snowcrystal padded over to the spearow near Wildflame's feet, but she was stopped when the houndoom placed her paw over the prey. "And were you just thinking of _taking_ it?" Wildflame sneered, "I thought you and those others were going to eat berries. This spearow is hardly a meal, and it was all I caught, yet it _is_ my kill. It belongs to me."

Shocked, Snowcrystal backed away, but knew better than to argue with Wildflame. Everyone had been acting strangely, and she suspected the reason for it must be that the shock of Blazefang's attack hadn't yet worn off. Walking back to Rosie, she decided that the best thing to do was to divide the berries among the rest of them. Thunder had wandered off, and knowing that scyther didn't get desperate enough to try and eat berries as easily as more omnivorous pokémon, Snowcrystal realized it probably wouldn't matter much anyway. Regardless, she tried to give some to Stormblade, knowing how badly he needed to eat, but to her dismay, he refused them.

"Come on, Stormblade," Snowcrystal tried to urge him, "Please eat them…You need to get stronger."

"Berries aren't going to do me much good…and what does it matter?" Stormblade replied, "According to Spark _and_ my old trainer, I'm always giving up no matter what…"

"But I don't understand…why did your trainer think that?" Snowcrystal asked, perplexed by the fact that he still seemed angry, "You don't give up easily."

"My trainer only kept me for battling," he explained, "Nothing else. Sometimes it was wise to give up during one of those battles, especially if we were far from a city at the time. At those times, if I got injured in a fight, I wouldn't be treated like the other pokémon; I'd just have to wait until Justin got to the nearest Pokémon Center. And sometimes that took days."

"But…_why_?" Snowcrystal asked, shocked.

"It was because my trainer was afraid of me," Stormblade stated simply, turning away from her, "I was little more than an accidental capture…but Justin was somewhat glad he had caught me, for he ended up keeping me for the very same reason that he loathed and feared me…my scythes.

"But as 'terrifying' as I was, I could fight well, and he knew that. However he kept me just for battles. He had other pokémon he used in battle; a meganium, a luxio, Spark, and a few others. I often saw him running and playing with these pokémon, though I knew he wouldn't dare get within ten feet of me. When I wasn't battling, I was usually in my pokéball or made to stay away from the other pokémon. When he let me out, he had to you know, he always had his other pokémon near him, guarding him, I think. But the point is, Justin was constantly afraid I would hurt him…or even kill him. He was sometimes too afraid to let me out to feed me, and would put it off for as long as he could. All in all, I know I'm better off without him."

Spark seemed to hear the scyther's last statement and shot an angry glare at Stormblade, but Snowcrystal ignored him and stayed by Stormblade's side, aware that something was troubling him. "If you want to tell me…you don't have to…" she began, "But…why did your…uh…Spark's trainer have to abandon you?" She was surprised that Stormblade seemed to actually want to talk about it.

"He didn't…" Stormblade replied, noticing that Spark had gotten up and left just as Snowcrystal finished speaking, "He had to _release _us back to the wild, and Spark sees that as abandoning us. I guess in a way…it was…and it was my fault…but I never did mean for it to happen."

"But…I'm sure it couldn't have been your fault…" Snowcrystal said quietly.

"It _was_…" Stormblade replied, turning away from her, "It happened around a time humans call Christmas time, and Justin had taken us all back to his hometown to celebrate for some reason or other. Spark and the other pokémon were inside with our trainer and his family, and when he finally decided to let me out of my pokéball after realizing he had to, he locked me outside, so I 'wouldn't hurt anyone'.

"I didn't want to stay outside in the snow, at least not in the open, so I headed into the nearby forest. I knew I couldn't hunt there, not that there was much food in winter anyway, because humans sometimes shot pokémon they thought could be a threat to the other humans living in the town, and I knew I looked like a desperate wild scyther, because Justin never really took care of me."

Snowcrystal listened quietly; she had heard that humans had weapons called guns, and that they could 'shoot' wild pokémon, but she wasn't quite sure what that meant. All she knew was that, somehow, pokémon could die from it.

Stormblade continued, though he didn't sound very eager to finish the story, "I was wandering through the forest when I heard screams…from a human. I ran towards the sound…and found a young human girl being attacked by a luxray. At first I didn't understand why it was attacking her, until I noticed a couple of shinx nearby. I supposed they must have been travelers, and the luxray was quite a bit too wary of humans around her cubs.

"I tried to stop her, but that only distracted the luxray, and she attacked me instead. While we were fighting, I was hoping the human would run away, but I guess she was too badly injured. The luxray I was fighting was weak from hunger and exhaustion, and I managed to fend her off without getting injured myself. After she and the cubs left, I walked over to the human, but she was unconscious, or at least I thought so at the time. I didn't know what to do, so I waited there, afraid to leave her all alone in case the other humans didn't find her. It began snowing very hard, erasing all signs of the luxray that had been there before. I couldn't even smell the scent anymore.

"After a while I heard humans, and a group of them found us at last. But what they saw was me, standing beside the little human who had bad wounds from the luxray's claws and teeth…and I had blood on my scythes from the fight. A human pointed a gun at me and I ran before he could shoot, and went back to my trainer's house. Spark noticed me from the window and came outside…I told him what happened. Then Justin wondered why Spark had left and came outside…and he came out and saw me and the stains of blood. He instantly returned me, and the next time I was let out…me, Spark, and all the other pokémon were being forced into the forest. I found out from Spark that the human in the forest had died, but I believe it was more likely to have been from the cold than the luxray's attack. Still, the humans thought I had killed her…and when they found out I was Justin's pokémon…he wasn't allowed to be a trainer anymore." Stormblade paused for a moment, before thinking of something and continuing again.

"When Spark told you…when we first met you…that we had run away and had only been wandering for three weeks…well, we were lying. I knew how much Justin loved Spark, and it must have been terrible for both of them, but I just wanted to get away. We actually wandered for months…Spark had come along with me because I knew the ways of the wild while he had been raised by humans most of his life. And Spark was the only one who believed me when I told him what happened. I tried to tell the other pokémon, but they ignored me and walked into the forest, going their own ways. We never saw any of them again. I was trying to find a new home…away from humans. And eventually, our travels led us near your mountain, still in search of a place where we could finally live in peace."

Snowcrystal stepped closer to Stormblade, knowing that he still blamed himself for the whole thing, yet it had only really been a misunderstanding. "But it wasn't your fault, it was a misunderstanding…you did the right thing by trying to help that human…" Stormblade didn't reply, and Snowcrystal didn't know what she could do, although she _did_ know they would have to get moving again soon. "Look, I know you want to rest now," she said gently, "But we have to find a healer, and Spark's right…splitting up is too dangerous. I'll tell Wildflame to help you." Bounding away from him momentarily, she spotted Rosie and Wildflame, as well as Thunder, who had recently returned. The sad look had not left the scyther's eyes, though Snowcrystal knew she wouldn't want to be questioned about it.

"We need to get moving," Snowcrystal told the others, "I'll go find Spark. Wildflame, can you help Stormblade? I don't think he can walk by himself."

"Fine," the houndoom muttered, not sounding enthused, despite the fact that she had willingly helped him before. Snowcrystal turned and headed after Spark, following his scent.

A moment later, the two reappeared, and Snowcrystal padded back to where Stormblade was.

No one in the group was aware of the aipom in the trees who had been watching them, Snowcrystal especially. He now snuck off, muttering to himself cheerfully, "A white growlithe? My trainer will be pleased with this…" Still muttering to himself, he headed back in the direction of the city, thinking up ways he could let his trainer know about the odd colored growlithe.


	14. Disaster Strikes

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 14-** **Disaster Strikes**

Snowcrystal knew that the others were exhausted. Even though it was still morning, the growlithe could tell that it was going to be a long, hot day. And while Wildflame and Rosie wouldn't mind all that much, it was certainly bad news for her.

Beside Snowcrystal, Rosie yawned. "Snowcrystal…how long are we gonna keep walking?" the vulpix asked tiredly.

"For a little while," Wildflame told Rosie, answering for Snowcrystal herself. The houndoom seemed much calmer than she had been before. Turning her head, she motioned with it toward the others up ahead. "Hey! Stormblade! Get a move on!" she called. Throughout the time they'd been traveling that day, Wildflame had grown tired of helping Stormblade. Now, he was forced to hobble along after the rest of the group, still unable to put any weight on his injured leg. Hearing Wildflame shout to him yet again, he stopped.

"It would help if you could slow down," he muttered to himself, leaning against a nearby boulder. Snowcrystal sighed and walked over to him. "Do you think we can take a break now?" Stormblade asked, looking at her with an almost pleading expression.

"I second that!" Rosie called from up ahead before Snowcrystal could answer.

Wildflame paused, and an annoyed look appeared in her eyes as she glanced at the vulpix. "We're never going to get anywhere at this rate…" she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I don't care," Rosie retorted, lying down on her back, "If you want me to keep going, try and make me! I'm taking a break whether you like it or not!"

"Fine," Wildflame growled, "Let's make it a quick break then." She glanced toward Snowcrystal, who was talking to Stormblade, and narrowed her eyes. Not noticing the look, the others tried to find a dry place to lie down for a little while. Though she was impatient with the rest of the group, Wildflame had to admit to herself that the journey _was_ starting to take its toll on her as well. A rest really didn't sound so bad.

"You know Wildflame," Spark called to the houndoom, "I think we should be spending more time resting…we can't keep going like this forever."

"Besides," Rosie agreed, "I bet Blazefang's just as tired as we are!"

* * *

In the shelter of a group of trees in a small park, a young trainer of about fourteen sat on a small bench, holding her shinx, as she watched her other pokémon play. Sitting next to was a boy about her age, though maybe a bit younger. As the girl's shinx jumped out of her hands and onto the bench, the boy reached out and petted the little pokémon, who curled up beside him.

"If you loved your pokémon so much, Justin, why did you give up pokémon training?" the girl, Katie asked, giving Justin yet another confused look. She had never understood why he didn't train pokémon anymore, and he had never told her anything about the matter except to say 'I gave it up.'

"I don't know…" Justin mumbled, "I guess…I guess it just…wasn't working for me…"

The young girl turned away, aware, as always, that there was more to it that he just wasn't telling her. Glancing toward a small piece of paper on her right, she was reminded of the news everyone had received that day. Poachers had been spotted near the city, and all trainers had been advised not to leave the city alone, at least until the poachers were caught. "Poachers…" she muttered through clenched teeth, "I sure hope the police catch them soon. I can't stand to think of what they do to pokémon."

A movement from the bushes nearby distracted her, and she looked in the direction of the noise just as her aipom bounded up onto the bench. "Aipom?" she muttered, surprised, "Where have you been? You shouldn't be wandering off while there could be poachers around."

Aipom pointed excitedly in the direction of the plains near the outskirts of the city and ran off, before stopping and waiting for the humans to follow. He turned around, holding up a small book with a picture of a growlithe in it. "Where did you get that?" Katie demanded, "You didn't steal it, right?" As Aipom smirked and ran off, Katie sighed and turned to Justin. "He's done it again… Well, we better follow him, and make sure he gives that book back to whoever he stole it from…"

Justin nodded and stood up, picking up Katie's shinx while his friend returned her other pokémon to their pokéballs. "All right…" he agreed reluctantly with a sigh, "Let's go."

* * *

As Blazefang's pack moved on, some of its members were noticeably missing. The houndour leader had finally realized that the injured pack members were only slowing them down, and eventually, he had decided to leave them behind. It hadn't been a pleasant decision, but it had been for the good of the rest of the pack.

Blazefang turned as Boneclaw approached. "What do you want us to do now?" the other houndour asked his leader.

"Stick with the same plan…follow the growlithe but not too closely," Blazefang replied, "Wildflame reported back to me while the growlithe thought she was hunting. She hasn't heard anything about Articuno yet, and she told me the scyther I fought survived the attack, but is badly injured. If we find him alone, I give you permission to kill him. We want the growlithe to lead us to Articuno as soon as possible and injured pokémon only slow others down."

Boneclaw nodded slowly, remembering the several houndour who had been injured and fallen behind after Blazefang had ordered the rest of the pack not to slow down for them. Blazefang had said that they would soon have to travel quickly, and there would be no use for injured pokémon. Thus, they had simply been left. Boneclaw shuddered, fearing that one day, he would end up in their place. He knew that ultimately, Blazefang cared about nothing but pleasing Firedash…not even his own pack mates mattered to him.

* * *

Wildflame quickly grew impatient with waiting again. She knew that Stormblade was the main problem; as Rosie really _could_ keep going, despite her stubbornness on the matter. Wildflame wanted to continue the journey as soon as possible, so they could actually get closer to wherever Articuno was, but at the moment, she mainly wanted to leave because she had a bad feeling about the area. However, she couldn't explain why, and she wasn't about to try and make the others understand.

Feeling restless despite her tiredness, she decided to look for a stream and maybe find some prey she could hunt. Padding away from the others, she glared back at Rosie and Stormblade for a moment before moving on. Once away from the others, Wildflame trotted easily over a large group of rocks and into an area where there seemed to be more trees. Prey was far more likely to be found among those trees than in the more rocky areas.

Suddenly a sound caused her to glance to her left, and she crept closer, until she heard voices nearby. Two of the voices belonged to humans, and another to a pokémon. Wildflame crouched down in a clump of bushes as an aipom ran by, followed by two trainers.

"What about the poacher warning?" the boy called as he ran after the female trainer.

"We'll be fine!" she called back to him, though the boy didn't look very convinced.

Once the humans and their pokémon had passed, Wildflame raised her head, realizing that they were headed straight for the group. Looking closely at the ground where the humans had passed by, she could see many footprints in the mud; her own footprints from before as well as those of the others in the group. And that was what the aipom and the humans seemed to be following. Knowing she could outrun them easily, Wildflame headed back toward Snowcrystal and the others by a different way, so as not to run into the humans.

* * *

Snowcrystal glanced up as Wildflame suddenly appeared, looking worried and out of breath. "What's wrong?" Snowcrystal asked her, looking alarmed.

"Humans," Wildflame growled, "We gotta move, now!"

"Humans!" Rosie cried, leaping up, "All right, let's get _out_ of here!"

"Stormblade will never outrun them!" Thunder snapped, "I say we chase them away before they even make it here."

Snowcrystal glanced at Wildflame, who nodded slowly. "I suppose that's the best we can do," The houndoom said quietly, "Snowcrystal, you and the others should try and go ahead with Stormblade. I'll distract them." Wildflame then took a deep breath, regretting what she had just said instantly. However, there was no changing her mind now, and she was the only one who stood a real chance; the others were either not good in battles or they were injured. 'Remember…' she thought to herself silently, 'You're a houndoom now…you can _fight_!" Feeling slightly less worried as she recalled herself taking down a stantler in the forest, Wildflame turned and bounded away. "This'll be easy!" she called, hoping she sounded convincing.

Not stopping to see if the others were going yet, Wildflame headed straight for the humans, hoping a warning flamethrower would be enough to send them on their way. She knew they had been following the group, but why? The last thing she wanted was to be captured, especially considering she was on an important mission for her clan back at the mountain.

Wildflame heard the sound of the humans' footsteps close by, and waited. Once they came into view, she leaped from the bushes and in landed in front of them, snarling as she turned to block their path. The humans both stopped and took a step back, and the aipom skidded to a halt right in front of Wildflame.

"Aipom, iron tail!" Katie called as she watched her pokémon dart out of the way of the wild houndoom's snapping jaws. Aipom ran back toward Wildflame and swung around, whipping his now glowing tail across the houndoom's side. Wildflame rolled with the impact and kicked out with her back paws, catching Aipom across the chest and knocking him to the ground. Staggering upright, Wildflame fired a flamethrower at the dazed pokémon, who barely managed to roll away in time to avoid serious injury.

Katie, realizing that Aipom would most likely get seriously hurt, became nervous. "Aipom get back here!" she cried, wishing yet again that she still had Aipom's pokéball. He hated being inside one, and would always manage to 'loose' his whenever Katie got a new one. However, this time Aipom could see that the battle wasn't going in his favor. He scampered back over to Katie, before climbing up on her shoulder.

As Wildflame took a step closer, Katie grabbed a pokéball and released one of her other pokémon. The pokémon appeared with a willing cry, standing right in front of Wildflame. The houndoom didn't need to recognize the pokémon to know it was a water type. Short light blue and white fur covered its body, and it stood on its hind paws. It had two long ears and a long jagged black tail with a large blue orb at the tip.

"Azumarill!" Katie cried, "Water gun!"

Wildflame was forcefully hit by a blast of water that sent her flying into a nearby tree. Coughing and sputtering, she stood back up and fired a blast of flame at the water pokémon. "Out of the way, Azumarill!" Katie cried just as Wildflame fired the attack. The water type heeded the warning and dodged the blast of flame. Katie reached into her pocket and took out a pokéball, pressing the small white button in its center to expand it. "I'm going to try and catch this one!" she excitedly to Justin who stood a little ways behind her, watching the battle.

Wildflame took a moment to listen to Katie's words. "Not on your life, human," she spat as she ran toward Azumarill. Knowing that fire attacks wouldn't work well against her opponent, she decided to use a different strategy. Running behind Azumarill, Wildflame leaped toward her, and though Azumarill dodged, the houndoom still managed to get a grip around the water pokémon's thin black tail with her teeth. Azumarill screeched in pain and whirled around, just as her trainer gave another command.

"Water pulse, Azumarill!" Katie shouted, and once again Wildflame was forcefully knocked back, but this time she recovered quicker. Not having much time for a close ranged attack, as Azumarill was still nearly unscathed, Wildflame launched another flamethrower, which hit its mark.

Wildflame stepped back, watching Azumarill as she stood up and faced her. The attack hadn't seemed to do much damage to the water pokémon, and apart from being badly singed, Azumarill seemed to be fine. Trying to gather up her strength, Wildflame prepared for her enemy's next move.

An angry battle cry suddenly caused both pokémon to glance to the left, a moment before Thunder darted from the bushes to stand beside Wildflame. "A scyther?" Katie mused, reaching for her pokédex as she stared closely at Thunder's broken chain and collar.

"Katie!" Justin cried, grabbing his friend's arm as she pointed the pokédex at Thunder, "Get away from there!" She glanced around at him in surprise, before hearing Azumarill's cries of pain, which caused her to glance back. The scyther had given her pokémon two long cuts across her back, and Katie quickly returned Azumarill.

"Let's get _out_ of here!" Justin cried, pulling his friend further away from the two wild pokémon. Finally deciding to listen, she followed Justin, running back through the mud and grass and towards the city. Sighing in relief as the humans left, Wildflame followed Thunder as they headed back to the others.

* * *

Snowcrystal looked up as she heard Wildflame and Thunder approach. "The humans have left," Wildflame assured the growlithe calmly.

"Good," Snowcrystal replied, and thought for a moment. "Wildflame, do you think you and Thunder could scout ahead and just check to make sure it's safe? You're the only two strong enough to fight if you run into danger, and I think it would be a lot better for us to know if there's any potential threats up ahead." She looked at the two of them; Thunder showed no reaction whatsoever, but Wildflame didn't seem very pleased with the idea.

"What about me?" Rosie cried suddenly, "I'm not injured! I'll go!"

"But I don't think…" Snowcrystal began, before Wildflame interrupted her.

"Let her go," the houndoom muttered, "I had to fight a pokémon already…I'm tired. I'll stay back here with the rest of you."

Rosie smirked and padded alongside Thunder as the two slipped into the bushes ahead. Snowcrystal stayed at the back beside Stormblade, and Spark and Wildflame walked a little ways ahead.

* * *

"How far ahead are we supposed to go?" Thunder asked Rosie as the two of them walked over rocks and bushes. Though Thunder wouldn't show it, her wounds were paining her, and she found it hard to keep up with the energetic little vulpix.

"I don't know Thunder…do you think we should go back now?" Rosie asked casually, stopping to allow the scyther to catch up.

"Yes," Thunder agreed, starting to turn back.

"Wait a minute," Rosie whispered, pricking her ears up, "I think I heard something…I want to go see what it is." She glanced toward Thunder who sighed before lying down in the mud, not seeming to care much that it got in her wounds. "Uh…stay here, I'll be right back…" Rosie told her. Heading away from her scyther friend, she followed the noise she had heard until she began to make out what it was. _Someone was calling for help…_

Rosie crept carefully through a group of bushes, away from Thunder. The vulpix emerged into a very small clearing, and instantly saw what had been making the noise. A young teddiursa was caught in a net. Rosie stiffened, knowing what that meant, and started to back away. Suddenly she felt a human hand close roughly on her scruff and she was lifted bodily off her paws and into the air.

"Well would you look what I found?" came a man's voice, and Rosie could hear another's footsteps. She tried to twist free from the human's grip, flailing her paws at him as she cried for help, although she didn't know if Thunder was even close enough to hear her. She tried to turn her head around to use a fire attack, but he was holding her neck fur too firmly for her to move her head at all.

"A vulpix?" the other human called, "Well, lucky us. Toss it in a cage. I'll get the teddiursa."

Rosie found herself being carried away to a truck that was nearby and thrown forcefully into a hard metal cage. Unpleasant memories flooded the young vulpix's mind from the last time she had been locked in a cage. But now, it was far more terrifying. There were other pokémon in cages in the back of the truck, and Rosie had no idea where the humans were bound to take them. At least before, she had been alone in a forest, and probably would have been able to free herself, but now, it was different. There were humans close by, watching, and they were going to take her away to some strange place. A cry of pain filled her ears as the teddiursa was thrown into another cage beside her. Rosie moved forward toward the bars of her cage, staring back out into the trees. "THUNDER!" she cried desperately, "Thunder…help!"

There was no answer. Rosie heard the humans get into the vehicle and start it. The floor of the cage lurched beneath her as the truck moved forward, causing her to loose her footing and fall. As the vehicle picked up speed, Rosie started to panic even more, crying out for help as loud as she could.

"Rosie!?" A voice called back this time, and Thunder stumbled out of the bushes and into the clearing that the truck had just left.

"Thunder!" Rosie cried, "Get me out!"

Without answering Rosie's cry, Thunder darted after the human's vehicle. Rosie peered through the cage bars as the truck drove on, noticing with relief that Thunder was catching up. Even injured, the scyther could move fast. "Thunder, hurry!" Rosie called out, failing to notice one of the humans in the truck lean out the window as he saw that a pokémon was following them.

Thunder was far too focused on Rosie and the cage to notice that the human carried a gun until it was too late. The gun fired twice, and Thunder felt one bullet strike her in the side and the other tear into her shoulder. She collapsed painfully to the ground, and the vehicle drove on. "Thunder!" Rosie cried, leaping up and placing her paws against the cage bars as she heard the gun fire and watched Thunder fall.

Thunder tried to get back up, but the pain was finally too much for her, and she only collapsed again as the truck drove further away, moving far quicker than it had been and vanishing into a large grove of berry trees.

The moment she had seen Thunder collapse again, Rosie's eyes had filled with tears that came unbidden. "Thunder, get up! Help me!" she cried, even though the scyther was now out of sight, "Don't let them take me…do something!" She was now sobbing uncontrollably in her absolute terror, fearing the humans and everything they could do to her. Desperately she clawed at the cage bars, not stopping even when she tore a claw and stained the bars with blood.

Thunder could hear the cries growing fainter and fainter, but she did not have the strength to get up, and gradually Rosie's shouts faded into nothing…

Rosie gave a loud cry of fear as she realized that Thunder could not follow her. All around her, pokémon were crying or yelling for help or vainly trying to free themselves. The vulpix knew it was no use, and now Thunder, her only hope, couldn't save her. Still, even though she knew that no one who could help her would hear her shouts, she did not stop crying out.

"Help!" she yelled in terror, "Someone help me! Get me out! Heeeeeelllp!"


	15. A Small Quest

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 15-** **A Small Quest**

Once again, the travelers had found themselves forced to stop because of Stormblade's injuries. As they rested, Snowcrystal couldn't help wondering why Thunder and Rosie were taking so long to get back. "Do you think they're ok?" she asked Spark, for the fourth time.

"Of course," the jolteon replied, "Rosie's probably just excited she gets to go on a little adventure and act responsible for once…she probably just wants to impress us or something by searching around a lot further than we thought she would." He shrugged, "They'll be fine, don't worry about 'em."

Snowcrystal sighed and gazed off into the distance. She couldn't help worrying. 'They should have been back by now…' she thought. She was about to suggest that they go look for them when heard rustling in the bushes, and Thunder staggered back into the clearing.

Snowcrystal stared in shock. The scyther's side and shoulder were drenched in blood, though how it had happened, she didn't have a clue. The growlithe leapt up, alarmed, and she could tell by the looks from everyone else that they were just as shocked. Stormblade limped over to her, seeming to know what had injured her.

"What happened?" he asked, sounding extremely worried, "Did you run into humans…you've been shot!"

Thunder whirled around suddenly and slammed the side of her scythe into his face, which was enough to knock him completely off his feet. "You think I haven't noticed that already!" she snarled at him, before seeming to loose her strength completely, and collapsing to her knees. "Look…" she muttered, ignoring the others' stares and struggling to her feet again, "In case you all haven't noticed…Rosie is GONE!"

"Wh…what?" Snowcrystal managed to say, looking even more shocked than before.

"Humans took her!" Thunder growled, "Along with lots of other pokémon too." She paused for a moment to take a few shuddering breaths, then went on, "She went off alone…I heard her screaming a few minutes later and ran after the human's truck…but they were long gone…I came back here…there was nothing I could do." She lowered her head, as if in shame. Snowcrystal wanted to help her, but she knew she'd probably get a scythe in her eye for trying.

Snowcrystal, Spark, and Wildflame glanced at each other in alarm, and Wildflame murmured, barely above a whisper, "I heard the humans I fought earlier mention something about…poachers? Humans who steal pokémon, right?" Spark nodded, confirming her beliefs to be true.

Stormblade sat up, closing one of his eyes as he looked at the others. "Well we have to go after them, don't we?" he asked, wincing.

"Why don't _you_ go after them! I'm sure you'll go far with that," Thunder muttered sarcastically, all though she was still breathing heavily. Snowcrystal could plainly see that Thunder had been badly hurt, and the scyther looked like she was about to pass out, but common sense told her not to say anything. It would be worse for Thunder if she was angered more. She hated to admit it, but the situation looked hopeless.

"What…what should we do?" she whispered, unable to hide the fear that shone in her eyes.

"Listen…Snowcrystal," Spark replied, turning to face her, "There isn't much we can do. I've lived with a trainer or other humans for as long as I can remember…I've heard about poachers…seen trainers who've had their pokémon stolen. And really, there was nothing any of them could do but move on. When pokémon are stolen, very few ever get reunited with their friends or trainers. Even if the poachers are caught, the pokémon they had stolen before are almost always either already sold, or…" He lowered his head, not wanting to finish his statement.

"But…we can't let that happen to Rosie…" Snowcrystal murmured silently.

"I'm afraid we won't be able to catch them," Spark replied, barely above a whisper, "And even if by some miracle we managed to find them, they'd only take us too."

"Take us?" Thunder repeated quietly to herself, as a confused look spread across her face. She closed her eyes, as if trying to remember something, then seemed to loose patience with it and opened her eyes again before lying down in the grass and continuing to listen to the others.

"But…but who knows what they'll do to her!" Snowcrystal shouted, facing Spark with a shocked expression, "And you're saying we should just give up?"

"Hate to break it to ya, but he's right you know."

Snowcrystal spun around, trying to locate the owner of the voice, when she noticed an aipom sitting on a low tree branch nearby. Before she could ask any questions, Wildflame let out a snarl and pounced, knocking the aipom clear off the tree and pinning him to the ground. "Why…are you following us?" Wildflame snarled, letting the aipom get a good view of her fangs. Aipom was caught completely by surprise, and could only stare back at the houndoom in terror. "Speak! Now!" Wildflame growled, "Or will I have to make you?"

"It…it…was just…" Aipom stammered, "I thought you needed help and I…"

"Help?" Wildflame scoffed, "If you wanted to help, can you explain why you tried to lead those humans to us?"

"Wildflame…" Snowcrystal whispered, not liking the way she was treating the aipom, enemy or not.

"Stay out of this!" Wildflame snapped back at her.

"Ok…" Aipom continued, seeming to have overcome some of his shock, "I went to get my trainer, Katie, and her friend because I found your friend…the scyther, injured, and I knew they could help…"

"They _attacked_ me!" Wildflame growled.

"Well you jumped out at them…what were they supposed to do?" Aipom shouted, "I had only seen the scyther and I had no clue until just now that you were friends so…"

"Try and come up with a more believable story next time," Wildflame snarled, "That is…if there _is_ a next time. I'm not going to just let you go so you can run straight back to the humans!"

"Wait!" Snowcrystal cried, before turning to the aipom, "Maybe you can help us…that is…you can tell us what you know about these…poachers."

"Nothing you don't know," Aipom replied, and Wildflame pricked his shoulders with her claws, silencing him.

"Oh…so you were spying on us, huh?" Wildflame growled, "Here's some advice for you; if you're going to spy on someone, don't give away your presence! I assume that would have been obvious."

"But when I heard…about…Rosie," Aipom continued hesitantly, "I didn't want you all to go running off only to get caught by the poachers…believe me, I won't lead Katie back here…just let go of me!"

Wildflame moved to the side, but still kept a paw down on the aipom's chest. "I don't trust you…" she sneered, and glanced down as an object fell from the stranger's paws. "What's this…?" she mused, prodding the object with her other paw. Spark glanced over, and realized it was a small book that the aipom had been carrying.

Wildflame's paw turned some of the pages, revealing a picture of a poochyena on one page, and a houndour on the other. Spark quickly realized it was some sort of book on canine pokémon. "It's a book…" Spark mumbled to himself in a bored tone.

Snowcrystal followed his gaze down to the small object, and suddenly remembered what Spark had said before. "Wait a minute!" she gasped, "Spark, you said humans know about many different things from books…even about other humans. What if one of the human's books tells us where the poachers could have gone?"

"Well…" Spark began, "I don't think…"

"Nonsense!" Aipom shouted, "Humans know everything!"

"No they don't," Stormblade muttered, "Most of them don't even know the genders of their own pokémon. They always call them an "it"…"

"Nah, they're just lazy," Aipom replied, trying to sit up, though Wildflame pushed him back down.

"But maybe one of the humans' books will tell us how to stop them!" Snowcrystal cried.

Spark shrugged. "I dunno…but it's not like it matters anyway, none of us can read human!"

"I can!" Aipom shouted, "I can read human! My trainer taught me. Just spare my life and I'll-"

"Oh really?" Wildflame growled, pushing the book toward Aipom with her paw, "Read this then, Aipom. Tell me what these markings mean!"

"Ok, ok!" he replied, "But don't call me Aipom. Katie calls me Aipom. No one else calls me Aipom! My name is Sid!"

"Shut up and just tell us what means…Aipom!" Wildflame growled.

"There's no need to be mean…" Snowcrystal whispered, but Wildflame ignored her.

Thunder watched the others from where she lay, not wanting any of this arguing to go on any longer. She just wanted to rest, and be alone for a while, though she had to admit that leaving the group would not be a wise decision when she was in such an awful condition. Laying her head down on the grass wearily, she continued to watch them.

Sid picked up the book, opening it at a random page. "Uh…ok…once upon a time there was a poochyena. See? Poochyena!" He held up the book, pointing to the picture, "And uh…he was standing there…waiting for…"

Wildflame swatted the book away. "You can't read it!" she growled.

"I can! Just not very well!" he protested, "But my trainer can read! I can find a book about whatever you want, and she can read it to me, and I can tell you what it says!"

"There won't be a book that tells us where the poachers are!" Spark shouted.

"Well maybe not, but you can learn more about them," Sid replied, "All the better if you ever want to find them. And there's books about everything! Even about healing herbs that you can find in the forests and plains…" He aimed this last statement particularly to Stormblade.

Wildflame was about to reply when Snowcrystal stepped up to the aipom. "I have an idea," she told the others, "If he can lead us to a place with books, maybe we'd be able to find one that can help us find out why the poachers would want to take Rosie! At least the humans have pictures in those books."

"But…Snowcrystal…" Spark began.

"Look, he's right…" Snowcrystal whispered, "We'll never catch up to them in our state. In the mean time, we should find out as much as we can about the poachers, and about what we can do to try and help those of us who are injured…and maybe…maybe even about Articuno."

Wildflame sighed. "I don't see what this will-"

"Look, maybe she's right," Stormblade stated, "Even if we can't find out about the poachers, Rosie would have wanted us to help Snowcrystal find Articuno. If somehow…this can help, I say we try and find out what these humans know. If Sid really wants to help us, like I believe he does, he can tell us what the books say after his trainer reads them."

Spark and Snowcrystal nodded, and Wildflame sighed again. "All right…but only a few of us should go to find these books. I'll go…to make sure you don't pull any tricks…" she muttered with a snarl at Sid, "And if this works, we'll let you go…but we'll make sure we're far from the humans first!"

"All right then," the aipom said cheerfully, jumping us as Wildflame released him, "I'll show you the place!"

"I'll go too," Snowcrystal added, "But we should go at night, when most of the humans are in their dens, "Maybe Spark should go as well; you know a lot about humans."

"No!" Spark stated firmly, "Bring me back a book, and I'll do my best to figure out what it means if Sid can't get his trainer to understand, but that's all I'm doing! I'm not going to get myself in trouble with the humans! At least not until my injuries heal that is," he added with a shrug.

"Fine," Wildflame growled, "We'll leave you here. Once night falls, the three of us will go to this…place…" As Sid started to climb a tree, Wildflame stamped her paw down on his tail. "And remember…I'll be right by you the whole time…any tricks, and you'll regret it!"

"Don't worry," the aipom reassured her, "No tricks…"

* * *

Rosie lay shivering on the cage floor in the back of the human's truck; too exhausted to call for help anymore. Many of the other pokémon were still silently crying and occasionally calling out to someone far away. Rosie blew a small ember near the bars of the cage, trying to warm herself up. It was now getting close to evening, and a few other pokémon had been found caught in cages and thrown into the truck.

Rosie sighed, watching the small ember fade away. _If only my ember was hot enough to melt the bars…maybe if I knew flamethrower…_Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something tapping against the bars of her cage. She turned and looked to see the teddiursa she had seen being captured by the poachers, looking through the bars at her.

"Huh…what?" she mumbled, confused.

"You tried to save me," he whispered, "Tank you!"

Rosie stared for a moment. She realized that this pokémon was very young; younger than her, even. She tried to remember what happened, but only remembered following the sound of his cries for help, and seeing him in the clearing. "Uh…you're welcome…" she stammered, turning her back toward him as she stared off into the distance.

"Were you friends wif tat syfer?" he asked, and Rosie merely shrugged in response. "Why did she-"

"Look," Rosie replied, "Just…just stop talking to me, ok?"

The teddiursa was silent for a moment, then replied, "If we work togever, maybe we can ascape! What's your name?"

Rosie sighed. As much as she hated to admit it, the small teddiursa was a bit of a distraction from her troubling thoughts. "Rosie…" she replied, "Uh…what's yours?"

"I don't have a name," he replied, "Maybe you can give me one!"

"All right, fine…" Rosie mumbled, and turned to look at him, her eyes darting to the moon shape on his forehead. "Crescent," she said a few seconds later, "That's your name."

The newly named teddiursa looked confused. "But doesn't that mean tree? I'm not a tree!"

"It doesn't mean tree!" Rosie snapped, "It…oh never mind…" She slumped down against the side of the cage, trying to push the awful thoughts from her mind…of the poachers…all the captured pokémon…Thunder being shot…

…_Was Thunder even alive?_

"What are they going ta do ta us?" Crescent's now scared-sounding voice interrupted her thoughts. She glanced back at him, and realized that he looked innocent and confused, with no real idea of the true horrors these humans could possibly put him through.

"I…don't know," Rosie admitted, shaking her head and curling up against the side of her cage as the truck drove on, "I really don't know…"


	16. A Risky Venture

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 16-** **A Risky Venture**

Rosie was still shivering by the time the truck stopped. She was cold, hungry, and terrified. The vulpix tried to give a brave growl as a human lifted her cage up, and placed it on the ground beside the truck and in front of a large building. Rosie could see no other human buildings anywhere nearby.

Rosie jumped, startled, as a human unlocked her cage. She lunged forward and the human stepped back, but as soon as her paws touched grass she was lifted up by her scruff again, and the human forced something around her mouth; something that held her jaws tightly closed. '_A muzzle!' s_he thought, outraged, '_He's making me wear a muzzle?_'

Once the muzzle was secure, Rosie found herself being taken toward the building. She clawed and scratched, but the human didn't even react to it at all, not even when she drew blood. The human took her into the building, past rooms she didn't bother to try and look at closely. Before long, she was taken to a rather large room, and put in yet another cage. The human did not take the muzzle off.

Rage flooded through her, and she slammed her small body against the cage bars, in some vain hope that somehow, she would be able to free herself. Though after a few tries, she fell back, feeling exhausted, battered, confused, and most of all…scared.

"Rosie?"

Crescent's innocent sounding voice roused Rosie from her thoughts, and she looked up, watching Crescent being taken, held by the scruff as she had been, past the room and to another. "Rosie…" Crescent's eyes grew wide as he realized he was being taken away from his newfound vulpix friend. "Rosie…wait…Rosie-help!" he cried, suddenly alarmed, "Don't let them take me, hel-"

Rosie heard a loud smack, and realized the human must have hit Crescent in order to keep him quiet. She tried to move closer to the bars, but she could no longer the see the human or the teddiursa. She realized that all around her were different pokémon in cages, though most of them were either asleep or lying still and pretending to be. They seemed to grow especially quiet whenever a human walked by with another pokémon. Since she had the muzzle, Rosie couldn't ask them anything. Sinking slowly to the bottom of the cage she allowed herself to cry, not caring who saw or heard. The tough, spunky little vulpix was gone…leaving only a lost, scared, and lonely little pokémon in her place.

* * *

Rain lashed down against the tall buildings of the city, dark clouds making the nighttime seem even darker. Padding cautiously through the alleyways, two pokémon followed a third as they made their way along nearly deserted streets.

Wildflame shuddered; her fur was soaked through and plastered to her body by the rain. She had always hated the rain; most fire types did, and she was certainly no exception. "How much further is this place?" she growled to the aipom up ahead.

"Not far!" he replied, before running off ahead.

Snowcrystal, her fur soaked with muddy water from the streets, ran after the others as Wildflame bolted after Sid. After a short while they stopped, and checked around for humans before Sid led them to the side of a large building.

"Here!"

Snowcrystal peered up through the rain at the side of the building, while Sid clambered up onto a windowsill and carefully opened the small window.

"I've snuck in here before," he explained, "This window never closes fully. We can go in through here. Unfortunately, you won't be able to fit, miss houndoom."

Wildflame growled. "Then I'll wait here…" she muttered, "You know about humans, so you help Snowcrystal find what she's looking for, all right?"

"Of course," the aipom replied with a smile before slipping through the open window.

Wildflame expected Snowcrystal to have a bit of trouble climbing, but to her surprise, the growlithe leaped clear up onto the windowsill from the ground. Noticing Wildflame's surprised glance, Snowcrystal explained, "I'm used to this sort of thing, there were lots of rocks I had to climb back at the mountain."

Wildflame merely grunted in reply, and lay down with her paws tucked under her, after she had carefully scanned the area for any passing humans.

"You'll be okay, right?" Snowcrystal asked, turning to look at the houndoom.

"Sure," Wildflame replied with a shrug.

Snowcrystal sighed and carefully climbed to the window and leaped to the carpeted floor inside, her paws making a dull thud as she landed. She was in a small room, and it was too dark to see much of anything. Lifting her head, she searched around for Sid, and found the aipom standing in a doorway leading to a much larger room.

"Over here," he whispered, prodding the door leading to the other room open more. "This…is what the humans call a library."

Snowcrystal's eyes widened. The dark room ahead was brightened ever so slightly by the windows near the ceiling through which the stormy sky let in a fraction of dim blue light. Every few seconds lightning flashed across the sky, briefly lighting up the interior of the vast room.

The room was far huger than any of the cave chambers Snowcrystal had known back at her mountain home. Massive shelves of books seemed to tower far over her head; rows and rows of them in all directions. All along the walls were large intricate pictures depicting all sorts of pokémon and humans. Many of the pokémon in the pictures were legendaries; Snowcrystal even spotted one of Articuno.

"This way!" Sid's voice snapped Snowcrystal out of her reverie, and she followed the small aipom as he headed toward one of the large shelves.

"Do you know where we can find the right books?" she asked, whispering, as if fearful some human or guard pokémon would hear her. There seemed to be no one around, however.

"Hmm…I might have an idea," Sid replied, rather loudly, "Oh, I know! Let's split up! I'll look for a book about poachers, you look for one about healing remedies…you know, for your scyther friend…S…s...Skyblade."

"But…but how will I know how to find it?" Snowcrystal asked, worried.

"Just look at the pictures!" Sid shouted, already starting to run off, "You're smart…you'll figure it out! Just bring whatever you find to me!"

"But wait!" Snowcrystal cried, "Shouldn't we…" She stopped, for the aipom was already gone. "Decide on a meeting place…" she finished to herself in a whisper. She honestly didn't like the thought of splitting up, especially in a place as vast as this, yet now, she didn't have a choice. Looking around, she noticed hallways leading off into other rooms, that probably could be as big or bigger than the one she was currently standing in. She decided to start here. Sighing, she headed over to one of the towering shelves.

Noticing a group of thick books near the bottom of the shelf, Snowcrystal tried to pry one loose with her claws, resulting in the rest of the books next to it crashing to the ground as well. A few of them landed open, but none of them had pictures at all. Snowcrystal gently turned some of the pages with the tip of her nose, but found nothing she could find useful. She figured a book about healing herbs would have to have pictures, and moved on, leaving the other books lying on the floor.

Quietly she moved along the dark shelves, pulling down books with her claws and looking for any sort of pictures. She found nothing helpful or of interest to her.

After she had walked along two rows of shelves, she began to feel hopeless. The place was simply too vast, and she couldn't even reach any of the books on the higher shelves. She could barely reach up to the second shelf, and she figured that climbing them would be a bit risky if she didn't want to be heard; she still had no idea if there were any humans here.

A little while longer, and Snowcrystal had stopped to take a short break. She had explored various areas of the room, and found that, somewhat, certain types of books were together in certain areas. She had found one area filled with books all about humans training their pokémon, an area with books depicting various fire pokémon, and yet another area where all the books were small or thin and had bright, colorful pictures on each page, but which had no real meaning, or at least not one that Snowcrystal could see. She decided she needed to look elsewhere for books that had pictures of plants.

Turning towards one of the wide hallways, Snowcrystal quietly padded along it, shuddering as lighting forked across the sky beyond the tall windows, sending bizarre shadows against the walls. She attempted to calm down, mentally chiding herself that she shouldn't be afraid of things like that; she hadn't minded darkness or shadows in the caves back at her mountain.

After having passed a large mural of the three legendary dogs, Snowcrystal made a mental note to herself that humans might have placed books about legendaries somewhere near. Feeling a burst of excitement surge through her small body, she ran forward into a room even larger than the one she had just recently left.

Running up to the nearest set of shelves, she pulled a few books free, which landed on the floor with a rather loud thud.

Then she heard footsteps.

Panic flooded through her, as she realized by the sound of the footsteps that they could only belong to human. Such was her shock and fear of being discovered that she did not try and control her panic. Turning away without even looking at the books, she fled down the next row of shelves, running as fast as she could…not slowing down or trying to hide even though she was probably making enough noise for the human to hear her. She didn't take the time to think of where she was running. She didn't take the time to think that this was not a poacher and would not kill her…she just ran.

Thoughts flooded into her mind, and she remembered what her friends had told her before. Pokémon of colors human's weren't familiar with, growlithe that were not orange, would be captured in an instant if seen by a human. She had to get _out_.

Shelves of books, large paintings, various hallways and corridors all flew past her as she ran, illuminated every few seconds by a burst of bright lightening. Snowcrystal couldn't even tell if the human was following her or not, she just kept running.

Then she stopped dead.

She had ended up in what was the beginning of a hallway. She had entered an open doorway to come face to face with a huge white wall, with a hallway veering off on either side of it; to the left and to the right.

But the reason she had stopped was the large painting on the wall directly in front of her, illuminated by the glow of her crystal. It was larger than most of the ones she had seen before, yet not the largest. Unlike the others, this painting was circular, and all around the edges were different pokémon, all of various types. A golduck, a vileplume, a mightyena, a raichu, a kadabra, a pidgeot, a golem, a sandslash, a dewgong, a weezing, and a charmeleon, all using different attacks that merged together at the center of the painting.

It was the charmeleon she couldn't stop staring at, for from its gaping mouth came a burst of burning blue-white flames, with small streaks of purple and black flickering across them. She had recognized it the instant she had seen it, and mouthed the word under her breath.

"_Shadowflare…"_

Unwillingly, memories awakened more vividly in her mind, of how the attack had followed Stormblade in midair, and not even hiding behind a tree had saved him from it. She shuddered, knowing all too well the damage it had done to him. Her thoughts drifted back to Stormblade…she wondered how he was coping with the pain. She didn't want to imagine how badly something like that would hurt.

Shaking that last thought from her mind, she studied the other attacks in the picture. All of them were incredibly strange and eerie; the one the vileplume was using seemed to be a huge mass of vines and other plants bursting from the ground with massive thorns. There were not only vines, but also what seemed to be giant carnivorous plants. It looked like some very freaky version of frenzy plant. The other attacks were equally vivid and strange, and the golduck's attack also caught her attention; it seemed to be using something like rain dance, but the 'rain drops' were green and in the shape of burning skulls. Whether the attack really looked like that or it was just the human artist's depiction of it, she wasn't sure, and she wasn't sure she cared to know. There were human markings at the base of the painting, but Snowcrystal didn't need to read them to understand what the picture was showing; the Forbidden Attacks.

For some reason, she could not tear her eyes from the picture. She sat staring, not knowing how long it had been since she had entered the library. She wasn't sure if she had sat their for hours, or simply just minutes, but it was yet again the sound of approaching footsteps that snapped her out of her trance.

"HEY!" shouted a voice, a human voice. Snowcrystal glanced up in alarm, seeing a human holding a bright light and advancing toward her. Without a second thought, she got up and fled. The human ran after her, and without pausing to think, she chose the left hallway and bolted blindly down it.

The human with the light seemed to be following closely, until Snowcrystal veered off into another open doorway. After passing through several large rooms, Snowcrystal, by some stroke of bizarre luck, noticed the small room through which she had come into the library. She made a beeline for it, knocking a few books from the shelves by accident as she did so. The human's light flashed across the ground behind her, but Snowcrystal had already entered the room and reached the windowsill. Effortlessly slipping through the window, Snowcrystal leaped to the wet pavement below.

"_Wildflame!"_

"I'm here," the houndoom replied casually, stepping out of the shadows of another nearby alleyway, "What's going on?" she asked calmly, "Did you find the books?"

"Humans," Snowcrystal gasped, "A human chased me. We have to get out of here!"

"Where's Sid?" Wildflame asked as they started to run.

"I dunno," Snowcrystal replied breathlessly, "But he said he's snuck into human dens before…he'll know what he's doing!"

Wildflame merely nodded in reply as the two sped off.

* * *

"Aipom!" Katie shouted, stopping right as her pokémon stopped, just beside the wall of the city library. Reaching out, she managed to grab her pokémon before holding him at arm's length and glaring at him. "What do you think you're doing? Running off again!" She sighed. "I sure wish you'd listen to me once in a while…"

Justin caught up with his friend, stopping to catch his breath by the side of the building. "You know…" he gasped, "Do you think maybe Aipom was trying to lead us here or something?"

No sooner had he said that then he noticed two pokémon bolting into an alleyway up ahead. Katie seemed to have noticed as well, because she had stopped scolding Aipom, and due to her surprise, dropped him.

"That…that growlithe was white!" Katie whispered, awed.

Sid mumbled to himself as he stood up, staring in the direction of Snowcrystal and Wildflame. "She escaped?" he mused, "Hmm…interesting. Well not exactly according to plan but still…if Katie catches the growlithe, that means I'll be rewarded since-" He paused, realizing that neither trainer was paying any attention to him. "Hey!" he shouted, "You only saw the growlithe because of me!" Of course, neither human understood him.

"Let's try and find where it went," Katie told Justin excitedly, "Aipom, do you think you can help us follow the growlithe?"

Sid stopped yelling and instead stood up straight, giving a polite nod and for once looking every inch the helpful, obedient pokémon.

"All right," Katie replied, "Let's go and find out where it came from. I doubt a pokémon like that lives in the city. Someone would have told people about it…I've heard that growlithe can be golden, but not white! Think of what a discovery it would be if we caught it!"

Justin nodded as Katie and her aipom sprinted off, and reached down into his pocket to pull out a pokéball Katie had given him. Technically, he wasn't allowed to have one, since his trainer license had been confiscated. Yet Katie had given it to him, secretly hoping that he would resume training; not knowing the truth behind why he had 'quit'. Justin had kept the pokéball, in memory of the pokémon team who had been so close to him; Jungle the meganium, Thunderbolt the luxio, Magma the growlithe, Whirlpool the buizel…and Spark the jolteon. All good friends, whom he would never see again, thanks to that accursed scyther…

Justin sighed as he stared down the alleyway to where Katie and Aipom had just disappeared. He then looked down at the pokéball intently, memories of his days as a trainer flooding unbidden through his mind. He pictured the white growlithe, such an incredibly rare and even unknown pokémon, running away as he looked up back towards the alley, whispering to himself under his breath as he gripped the pokéball tighter.

"It's time to redeem myself."

* * *

Spark paced impatiently back and forth across the clearing, wondering when Snowcrystal, Wildflame, and Sid would come back. He was pleased to have noticed that his wounds were healing; already he could walk with hardly a limp at all. Just out of curiosity, he did a few experimental sprints to test this. His wounds still hurt, but he felt a lot better even after running.

Pausing for a moment, unsure what to do while waiting now, he looked over to Stormblade, who, unlike him, looked no better than he had the day Blazefang had used that attack on him.

Spark stood up and walked over to him, noticing that Stormblade had dozed off. "Huh. Probably the first time he's slept in days," Spark muttered to himself, glancing over the scyther's wounds. Suddenly he stepped back, a look of alarm on his face. He hadn't noticed before, but now that he'd gotten a closer look, there was no mistaking that Stormblade's wounds were staring to get infected.

And infection would spread.

Worried, the jolteon looked at his own wounds. The burns didn't look as bad anymore, and were obviously healing, and fur was starting to grow back on his shoulder where it had been scorched away before. Glancing back at Stormblade, he could see that the scyther's wounds just looked worse. Spark stood still, thinking back to something Stormblade had told him before about the wild. In the wild, infection was deadly. If a pokémon's wound became infected badly enough, a slow and painful death awaited them.

Spark tried not to panic. Everything about the wild used to scare him. He remembered when Stormblade was trying to teach him how to hunt and survive when he was new to it…the horror at learning that if anything _really_ bad befell him, there would be no humans to help; no pokémon centers, no potions. Spark shook the thoughts from his mind. The others needed to know about Stormblade.

He turned around, suddenly remembering that Wildflame and Snowcrystal had gone, and the only other one here was Thunder. Running past a few trees to where she had been resting, Spark shouted, "Thunder, I-"

He stopped. Thunder wasn't there. Confused, he looked around before approaching the place beside the large tree where she'd been resting before. The grass was heavily stained with blood, and Spark turned his head away in disgust. Confused, he wondered why Thunder hadn't even attempted to make a comfortable nest. He may have been raised by humans most of his life, but he knew enough to make a nest from leaves and moss whenever he slept outside.

"Thunder?" he called, carefully sidestepping the patches of blood while peering through the trees. "Where could she have gone?" he mumbled to himself, wondering why she had even left in the first place. Judging by the fact that her scent was somewhat stale, he figured she must have left a little while ago.

Padding forward, Spark soon noticed a small trail of blood leading through the trees, which alarmed him further. Even though Thunder had never particularly liked him, or anyone else for that matter, he was worried about her.

Spark followed Thunder's scent, even more alarmed. No pokémon in her condition should be out there on their own…even if she was a scyther. He knew he would have to find her before the others came back, or she might get captured by poachers, or worse…killed.


	17. A New Owner

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 17-** **A New Owner**

Rosie wasn't sure how long she had been left in the dark room, but after a while, a human opened the door and walked inside, followed by another. Rosie tensed, baring her fangs as the humans walked right up to her cage.

"A vulpix…well, it's not often you manage to catch one of those…"

Rosie growled at the speaker, who reached his hand toward the cage. Leaping forward, Rosie sank her small teeth into his hand as it strayed too close to the bars. The man pulled his hand back, but to her surprise, he smiled. "A feisty one…this pokémon has potential…I can see her becoming a skillful fighter."

"So this is the one you want?" asked the other man.

"Yes," he agreed, "As well as that teddiursa and the espeon you showed me earlier."

_Teddiursa…_ Rosie thought. She hadn't noticed an espeon being brought here, but there were many other pokémon already in the building. She wondered what the human wanted with them…to train them to fight? She shuddered. She didn't want to be trained, especially not now…she was too young for battles…she would get ripped to pieces!

"Well…then she's all yours!" one of the humans was saying, making Rosie glance in his direction. The man opened the cage, but before she even had the chance to move, she felt something small and pointy prick her in the shoulder, and before she could take a single step further, her senses faded to black…

* * *

…It was night…she could tell…there was moonlight coming through the windows…windows? Rosie opened her eyes more fully, trying to make sense of what had happened. Sitting up, she looked around, feeling dizzy and only half-awake. She peered around, realizing she was in a cage in a human building…it looked like a gym, though one much newer and more nicely kept than the one she had seen while looking for her fire stone in the human town within the dark forest. Something itched at her neck. She tried to scratch it with her hind paw, when she realized that there was something in the way. Reaching her paw up, she felt a thick leather collar around her neck.

Gasping in surprise, she tried to tear it off, but it was too tight, and her claws did no damage to it. Finally giving up, she looked around and noticed that there were other pokémon in the gym building, all with collars like her…all either chained up or in cages. Looking at them, she noticed that they all looked thin, but none of them had any serious wounds.

"The vulpix is awake now," a human voice sounded through the darkness, causing Rosie to jump. The vulpix stepped back as the human walked closer. The tall man was followed by another with an espeon beside him. The psychic eevee evolution also wore a collar similar to Rosie's, and Rosie realized that must be the espeon the other man had taken.

"You really think this one could be a fighter?" the second man asked, "It's…rather small…"

"Not for long," the first smirked, leaning closer to Rosie's cage, "But our job is to make pokémon strong. People pay a lot of money for a good fighting pokémon these days, especially a rare one." He eyed Rosie carefully, and then opened the cage.

Rosie ran out the cage door, firing an ember at the humans, who backed away. She noticed the young espeon flinch at the heat from her attack. Rosie was just about to run towards the men again, when suddenly she felt a horribly painful sudden jolt of electricity rippling through her small body.

Giving a cry of pain and surprise, Rosie collapsed to the ground, lying on her side, her paws thrashing as the pain surged through her. She tried to make sense of what had happened, and at the same time, she was silently begging…wishing for it to stop…

And all at once, it did. Rosie lay gasping against the cold floor, her eyes darting to the human, who held a strange device at her. She realized that if she made another attempt to attack him, she would feel that terrible pain all over again.

Seeing that Rosie had abandoned her attempt at fighting, the man smirked. "Looks like it gets the picture. Let's see how it does in a real fight…how about against Espeon? Neither of them have had any experience."

Before Rosie had completely recovered from the shock, she was roughly dragged by her collar to the center of the room, which was marked like a normal gym battle room, only it was much smaller. She figured this must be a practice or training area.

Espeon was made to stand at the other end, looking more frightened than Rosie had ever felt. Standing shakily to her feet, the vulpix glanced at her new "trainer", and noticed him holding that same device. She knew she didn't have a choice. She would have to fight. "If only I wasn't so small and didn't only know such pathetic attacks…" she muttered under her breath, shaking as she faced the espeon.

"All right Espeon," one of the "trainers" shouted clearly, though sounding less than enthused, "Try a psybeam!" Espeon visibly flinched, and didn't move. The man repeated the attack, and when she didn't comply, he gave the small pokémon a kick. Espeon cried out, landing on the ground and refusing to get up again. "Pathetic…" the man whispered.

"Doesn't seem like much of a fighter to me," the other agreed, "But of course, if it doesn't get better at it, it could still be sold as a pet, or if not…then its pelt could be valuable…" Rosie shuddered, watching the espeon being taken out of the room, crying out as the man held her collar a bit too tightly. "As for you…" the human continued, startling Rosie, "I'm still curious as to how you fight a battle…" He threw a pokéball, and Rosie stepped back as the form materialized.

The human's pokémon reminded the young vulpix somewhat of Wildflame, only it had no horns, and its fur was a light gray color, with two thick black stripes leading from its head to its back. The pokémon's legs were also covered in black fur, and its feet were clawed. A long, bushy black tail lashed from side to side as the pokémon's yellow and red eyes stared straight into Rosie's amber ones. Rosie flinched away from the wolf-like pokémon, knowing very well that it was a fully grown adult, while she was still very young; her most powerful attack being ember.

"Mightyena," the human said calmly with a smile, "Do what you wish."

At once Mightyena leaped towards Rosie, pinning her to the ground with her claws. Rosie tried to break free, only causing the wolf pokémon's claws to twist deeper into her fur. Turning her head, she blew a small stream of flame at the mightyena's paw. Mightyena leaped back with a small snarl, but before Rosie could even stand, the larger pokémon had rushed towards her again, her black tail glowing silver.

Rosie cried out as the tail slammed into her side, sending her skidding across the rough floor. As Mightyena came closer, Rosie rolled over onto her paws, feeling some of her strength miraculously returning as she leaped at the mightyena, trying to get close enough to use ember again.

Effortlessly the black and gray wolf dodged, before spinning around and launching a shadow ball. Rosie ducked a split second before the glowing black orb zoomed over her head and slammed into the wall, vanishing in a cloud of thin blackish smoke. As Rosie looked up, Mightyena had leaped toward her again, trying to tear at her with her fangs. Rosie darted frantically to the side, and Mightyena turned around with only a mouthful of tail fur. Rosie stopped, exhausted, and then suddenly recalled one technique she hadn't tried yet…confuse ray. Her eyes began to glow, and at the same time, Mightyena seemed to become disoriented.

Shaking her head from side to side, the canine pokémon failed to react in time as Rosie ran forward and used ember again-this time making a deep burn on the mightyena's foreleg. Mightyena growled in pain and attempted another iron tail, which missed. Rosie sped toward her opponent with a quick attack, but realized too late that Mightyena seemed to have gotten over her confusion, or at least for the most part. Even quicker than she could run, the mightyena turned and lashed at her with iron tail again, but this time across her face. Rosie fell to the ground again, and found she couldn't get up. The last words that echoed in her ears as her senses faded once again were the mightyena's…

"….I'm sorry…"

* * *

Thunder sat alone beside a small pond, away from the others. Crouched down by the pond's edge, she spat a small black object into the water, the bullet from the human's gun. She had finally managed to remove it, though she'd had to cut open her shoulder and pull it out with her teeth to do so. It had been painful, but necessary. Thunder wasn't going to risk a greater chance of infection. The bullet wound in her side, however, was a different story. There was nothing she could do about that.

Glancing at her shoulder, which was now bleeding a lot worse, Thunder attempted to stop herself from shaking. She tried to force all thoughts of pain to the back of her mind, so she could get her thoughts back under control…

She lifted her head suddenly at hearing the snap of a twig somewhere behind her. A moment later, Spark had appeared.

"Thunder…" he gasped, sounding relieved that she hadn't tried anything crazy like following the poachers, "Why did you wander off like that? And…what happened to your shoulder?" he added, noticing that it looked a lot worse.

"Nothing…" Thunder replied angrily, "Now leave me alone!"

Spark sighed, shaking his spiky head. "You have to come back! Don't ya know that there's poachers around?"

"I know that," she replied, barely above a whisper, still crouching beside the pond, "I'm not afraid of them…"

"Oh come on!" Spark cried, sounding impatient, "Just come back to where Snowcrystal and Wildflame were going to meet us already!"

"Don't want to…" Thunder muttered. She sounded annoyed this time.

"But we really need to stick together you know," Spark told her, "Just in case-"

"I'll come when I feel like it!" Thunder snapped, "Now GO AWAY!"

Startled by her sudden shout, Spark turned and scampered back the way he had come, not wanting to get her any angrier at him. She had been rather…unpredictable lately, and he the last thing he wanted was to be attacked. He briefly cast a glance back, seeing Thunder once again staring into the pond. He then headed back toward Stormblade, but feeling thirsty, he set off to find a stream, while making sure not to stray too far from his friends.

* * *

Snowcrystal and Wildflame skidded to a halt once they realized that they were in the safety of the hills. Wildflame shook droplets of rain from her coat. "Great…" the houndoom muttered, "I can't tell where the others are from here…the rain's disguising their scent!"

Snowcrystal lifted her head upwards and sniffed the air a few times, confirming Wildflame's statement. "Guess we'll just have to look for them," she muttered.

"Shouldn't be too hard," Wildflame replied, shivering slightly from the cold, "Let's just go…I don't like this place…" Snowcrystal nodded and the two headed off.

* * *

Stormblade wasn't sure what had awoken him, but he figured it must have been the pain. What surprised him, however, was that Spark was gone. He knew Thunder had been resting nearby, so that didn't worry him. He sat up, shivering, and glanced around to see if Spark was nearby. The rain was falling much harder now, feeling painful every time it struck his wounds. He thought it strange that Spark would just wander off like that.

However, something else was on his mind. He needed a drink of water, badly, and the rain wasn't enough. He knew it had been a long time since he had found water, and he could not remember being so thirsty. Looking around, he could see that the rain was simply turning the ground to mud. Stormblade didn't think he could make it all the way to a stream by himself, so noticing a group of large rocks somewhat nearby, he decided to head in that direction, as water had probably collected there. Slowly he staggered upright, making sure he didn't put any weight at all on his broken leg. Using his blades to help support himself, he headed in the direction of the rocks, using the trees to help keep himself from falling as he hobbled along. He found it was much harder to walk now, and he doubted he'd make it much further if the others decided to travel again soon. Plus, his wounds were infected, so his future in general looked anything but bright.

When he made it to the rocks, he was relieved to see that some water had collected in a large crevice in one of the stones. He was just starting to lap at the water when he heard splashing. Stormblade turned around, having heard the sound coming from beyond a large group of bushes near the group of rocks. He stayed completely still…and listened.

The splashing sounds grew louder…closer, and Stormblade abandoned the water and crawled into a space between two much larger rocks which together formed a sort of small cave. Peering out carefully, he could see the bushes rustling, and an aipom stepped out, followed by a human girl. Stormblade felt his blood run cold…the aipom was Sid. _Why was he leading a human here?_

"It's no use," the girl mumbled, stopping to stand staring at the rocks through the rain, "We won't be able to find the white growlithe in this weather…we should wait until it's lighter…"

Stormblade narrowed his eyes.

The human turned and shouted back to someone apparently looking elsewhere in the direction she had come from. "I'm over here! I think we should stop and rest for a while!" Turning to Sid, she returned the aipom into yet another new pokéball before looking around for some shelter from the rain.

Stormblade watched the human, not daring to make any sound or sudden movement. He was thoroughly confused…why was that human looking for Snowcrystal? And what did Sid have to do with it?

Stormblade suddenly became alarmed as the human started to walk right towards his hiding place. He tried to crawl further back into the narrow space, hoping the human would look elsewhere for shelter. But it was too late…the trainer had already started to peer inside. Any second, and she would notice him. Stormblade could think of nothing to do but shout at her to go away and hope it would startle her enough that she'd run.

Katie had just begun to feel as if something was watching her when she heard some pokémon…_a pokémon within the cave itself_, yell at her angrily, though she couldn't understand its words.

"_SCCCYYYTHHEEER!_"

Katie jumped back, shocked, and stumbled away from the small cave, looking visibly startled at hearing the pokémon's cry so suddenly. Yet at the same time, she couldn't help but think that there was something strange about a pokémon hiding in a small cave alone in the middle of a rainstorm.

Stormblade could see the human hesitate; see the shock and fear on her face. He expected her to run away, to not want to come anywhere near the caves again in this darkness.

Yet she didn't run. She walked right up to the cave again. Stormblade prepared himself for a battle he knew he couldn't win; a battle against fully trained pokémon which would be at full health…

But the human didn't send out any pokémon. She peered through the darkness until her eyes adjusted to the gloom and she could see him somewhat clearer. A look of surprise and shock crossed her face and she stepped back, calling out over the sound of the rain, "_Justin! Come here!_"

* * *

It had been a rather…strange day. More reports of poacher traps, and just now, he'd heard a few people talking about a white growlithe. Even stranger… The man shielded his eyes with his hand as he peered out over the trees and hills. He'd come here after hearing about the first poacher traps. It had intrigued him. After all, what better way to catch pokémon than to have someone else do it for you? Finding rare pokémon already caught in traps was certainly easier.

But the white growlithe…it was here? Sitting down for a moment, the man gently stroked the head of the pokémon sitting next to him, pondering. "If that growlithe is around here," he muttered, "It's worth looking for it…who knows, maybe the poachers will do the job for us, eh?" He smirked.

His quilava smirked back.


	18. An Unwelcome Return

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 18-** **An Unwelcome Return**

Rosie awoke to find herself in the same gym-like room, in her same cage. To her surprise, the mightyena from the battle was seated not far from her. For the first time, Rosie studied her carefully, and noticed a rather strange-looking collar around her neck, one that seemed to spark slightly. It was a lot similar to hers, only it seemed somehow…a lot more dangerous…very dangerous. Rosie shuddered. She then realized that the mightyena wasn't in a cage. Why didn't she run away? Did she _want _to be here?

"What are you doing?" Rosie yelled out suddenly, unsure why, "Why are you just standing there?"

The mightyena turned her head in Rosie's direction, and the vulpix detected a hint of sorrow in the wolf pokémon's red eyes. "I'm their guard," the mightyena replied quietly, "My job is to make sure no one escapes."

Rosie scowled, some of her older self returning as she stalked angrily up to the bars of her cage. "Oh? And you just let them order you around, so if anyone happens to be clever enough to escape you can end their hope for them once and for all!" Her fur stood on end, and she bared her fangs.

The mightyena didn't look threatened in the least. She reached a paw up to her collar, running a few of her claws lightly over it. "You see this?" the wolf stated plainly, "If I go so much as half a mile away from this place without one of the trainers deactivating it first, the shock will kill me." She lowered her paw and said nothing more.

Rosie felt her anger vanish, to be replaced with pity, yet she did not know what to say. "It's…horrible…what they're doing to us…" she mumbled at last, "What are they training us for anyway?"

"You and most of the others are being trained as battlers, and will be sold…well the ones that succeed that is," the mightyena added uncomfortably, "Otherwise they sell you for your pelt."

Rosie flinched at the statement, but decided to ask another question. "How many humans train pokémon here?" she asked.

"There's quite a few," the mightyena replied, "They all work together to catch or steal pokémon, or buy them from other poachers." She shook her head sadly and went on, "But let's not talk about that…my name is Nightcloud, and you?"

"Rosie," came the vulpix's reply. She knew that the mightyena was just trying to distract her from the present, and though she couldn't stand the idea that Nightcloud would deliberately change the subject when she had so many more questions to ask, she realized that it_ was_ for the best. There wasn't much she could do about her current situation anyway.

"Rosie," Nightcloud smiled, "That's a nice name. Are you from Stonedust?"

"Stonedust?" Rosie repeated, confused.

"Oh…it's er…a human city," Nightcloud stammered, "I heard that's where a lot of pokémon…well…"

"Got caught by poachers," Rosie finished for her.

Nightcloud nodded.

Rosie sighed. There wasn't much she could talk about that wouldn't lead to conversation about the poachers anyway. "I hope my friends haven't been caught…" she mumbled, almost inaudibly, "Snowcrystal…she's a growlithe with white fur…I'm afraid they'll catch her…and Spark," she shook her head hopelessly before continuing, "I bet he's walked into a trap already simply by not looking where he's going." She smiled slightly, in spite of the situation. The image that had formed in her mind was somewhat funny, as it seemed like the sort of silly thing Spark would do. "At least I know Wildflame will be fine…" she continued, "She's a great fighter…but the others…I'm not sure…"

A sudden shout from another room distracted Nightcloud from Rosie's cage. "I must go," the mightyena whispered, "But I'll be put back in this room again later…" With one final glance at the vulpix, she got up and left.

* * *

At the sound of Katie's shout, Justin shined his flashlight over in the direction of the rocks. He felt a rush of excitement-she must have found the white growlithe after all! Pushing his wet brown hair out of his eyes, he ran toward the group of stones, ignoring the fact that he was splashing through deep mud. When he reached Katie, however, she snatched the flashlight out of his hand.

"Give me that!"

"Hey!" shouted Justin, "What do you think you're doing?"

Katie didn't answer, and instead began crawling into a small cave. Justin saw her stop near the entrance and crouched down beside her in hopes of seeing the white growlithe…

But what he saw made him jump back, which in turn caused him to slip and fall onto the muddy ground. _A scyther…what on earth was a scyther doing here? _Quickly he scrambled to his feet. "Katie, what are you thinking?" he shouted, "Get away from there!"

Stormblade froze for a second. The voice sounded familiar…

He didn't have time to think about it long, for the female trainer who'd been looking for Snowcrystal earlier shined a bright light in his eyes. Stormblade backed up a bit further, as close as he could get to the rock wall, and glared straight back at the trainer, swiping at the air with his blade in a feeble attempt to give her a warning to stay away.

Katie didn't back away; she wasn't close enough to be within the scyther's range of attack. Justin had been trying to pull his friend away, and when he saw the scyther swipe its blade at the air, he picked up a rock and hurled it at the pokémon. "_Stay away!_" he yelled. The rock struck the scyther hard across its eye, but to Justin's surprise, it did not get up and try to attack.

"Will you stop it?" Katie growled, pushing Justin back down onto the ground, "What good will that do? Stay here…I want to get a better look at it…it's not moving much…and that's strange..."

Justin knew he couldn't stop Katie from crawling into the cave, but he called out, "Shouldn't you at least let one of your pokémon out for protection?"

"No," she replied, her voice echoing slightly from within the cave, "It hasn't attacked us yet, what's the big deal?"

"It's a scyther! They're _dangerous_!" Justin called back, but she ignored him.

Reluctantly, he crawled into the cave after her, feeling absolutely useless while just simply standing outside the cave. Katie stopped a few feet away from the scyther, and Justin was aware of how dangerously close she was. Though as he peered over her shoulder, he noticed what she had, and realized why the scyther hadn't been attacking them. Half of its body was covered in deep, scalding burns; from the somewhat 'minor' ones across the pokémon's face, to the truly _terrible_ ones all along its back. It had several bad injuries to its leg too, which looked beyond any sort of healing a pokémon center could offer. In addition to all this were the deep, half-healed cuts across its back; gashes inflicted recently by some clawed pokémon. It also now had a bleeding cut across its eye from the rock he had thrown. The scyther's fangs were bared in a formidable snarl, and both rage and terrible pain were clear in the pokémon's expression. Justin backed away.

"Let's…get away from here…" was all he managed to say.

"No!" Katie cried, "Can't you see it's hurt? We have to do something!" Before he could stop her, she had crawled further into the cave until she was right up close to the scyther.

Justin knew that there were some ways to ensure that one wouldn't be attacked by a wild pokémon. Approaching an injured, cornered scyther on the verge of panicking wasn't one of them. He was about to call out to Katie to stop, when he realized she was already right in front of the scyther, and it wasn't doing anything. In fact, it seemed fairly relaxed compared to how it had been acting before. Katie was rummaging through her backpack for supplies, and the scyther was just watching her, not seeming to know what she was doing. It seemed to simply be tolerating her presence. However it still unnerved him to see her sitting so close to it. '_What is she thinking?' _he thought to himself, '_That THING is going to kill her!_'

Almost just as he thought that, the scyther turned its gaze toward him. Justin shrank back. There was something about the look in the pokémon's dark blue eyes that he didn't like. Even when Katie got a potion out of her backpack, the scyther continued to stare at him. Justin had always thought scyther looked intimidating, but all the same…this wasn't a good stare…even for one of its kind. Though why the thing was staring at him and not Katie, who was sitting right next to it, he didn't know. Shuddering, he looked away, though he could still feel the wild pokémon's eyes boring into him.

"I'm afraid this won't do any good," Katie muttered, looking at the potion bottle.

"No," Justin agreed, wishing she would just leave the cave, "It's beyond any sort of help…we should just leave it here."

"Fine," Katie snapped, "You go…if you're so afraid…"

Justin felt stung by the remark, but he didn't show it. Crossing his arms, he glared at his friend. "I'm not leaving you here to get killed! And for goodness sake, let out one of your pokémon already!"

"Calm down," Katie replied, "He's not dangerous…I think he knows we want to help!"

"He?" Justin repeated, "How do you know it's a he? And yes, it's dangerous! Just look at those scythes!"

"If he wanted to attack me, he would have done so already," Katie stated calmly, "And I honestly don't think he could do much in this state…he could barely lift his arm before. Everything's fine! Look, see?" Katie reached out her hand and laid it on the wild pokémon's head. The scyther flinched at the touch, but otherwise didn't move. After a few moments, he seemed to get used to it, or simply stopped caring, and relaxed. Slowly Katie began to stroke the scyther's head, being careful not to touch any of his injuries. Justin stared at her.

"Katie," he said slowly, as if she were crazy, "That is not a growlithe puppy, that is a scyther. Don't _pet_ it!"

"He seems tame…" Katie mused, ignoring him, "Do you think he has a trainer? Maybe he's had one in the past…I think I'd have to capture him to bring him to the pokémon center, but I don't know if he already has a trainer or not…"

Justin wanted to say, 'What sort of trainer wants a pokémon like _that_?', but he held his tongue. He hoped it _did_ have a trainer. He didn't want Katie to catch this pokémon. He didn't want to see it again. Simply the name of its species brought back memories far too painful for him.

Katie looked through her backpack for a pokéball. "We need to get to a pokémon center as soon as possible," she told him, "The white growlithe can wait…let's see if I have a pokéball…I can at least try it…then I'll know whether or not it has a trainer…"

"Wait!" Justin interrupted quickly, "Why not use your pokédex? Then you won't risk wasting a pokéball. The pokédex should tell you if the pokémon has a trainer or if it's wild."

"You're right," Katie replied, taking her pokédex out of her pocket and holding it in front of the scyther, who watched her warily but did not try to move, "He seems too calm around me to be completely wild though…maybe he's had a trainer before? This should tell me…" She pressed a few buttons on her pokédex and waited a minute before stating, "He's wild. But I think he's had a trainer before. Let's see…original trainer…original trainer…" She stopped, a look of surprise crossing her face. "Hey Justin," she said, turning to him, "Did you ever release a scyther?"

Justin just stared at her blankly. "_What?_" he replied, confused.

"Your name shows up on the pokédex," she replied, sounding more confused than he was, "Here under 'original trainer'…"

"Let me see!" Justin yelled, yanking it roughly out of her hand. He scanned the small screen carefully, and there, unmistakably, was his name on the pokédex under 'Original Trainer'. He felt cold fear grip him, and not worrying about the scyther attacking him, he ran over to Katie and grabbed her arm, yanking her away. "GET AWAY FROM THAT THING!" he yelled.

"What? What are you-" Katie seemed too shocked and confused to form a proper sentence. Justin was staring at the scyther. With all those injuries, it had been impossible to recognize it, but now that he gave it a close glance, he realized it did look similar… Same size, same shape of its scythes…same cold blue eyes…_this was the murderer_.

Justin pulled Katie out of the cave, and she was too shocked to resist. Once away from the scyther, Justin released her. "What's going on?" Katie demanded, sounding angry.

"Alright, look!" Justin replied firmly, "I had a scyther, ok? And it's the reason I stopped being a trainer…I didn't give up, I got my trainer license taken away because of what that _monster _did!" He stopped for a moment, shaking as he pointed toward the cave entrance, and went on, "It escaped from me…and killed a little girl…in cold blood! So you wanted to know why I quit training? Well, now you do! Are you happy?" Without another word he turned and ran, not caring where he was going, but just blindly stumbling through the darkness, Katie staring after him with a mixture of shock and horror on her face.

Justin kept running, even after he stumbled on a rock and badly cut his knee. He simply got up and kept going, the white growlithe momentarily forgotten. His voice shaking with rage, he muttered under his breath as if the scyther could still hear him, "Farewell for good, Scyther…I sure hope you _suffer_ for what you've done!"

Katie meanwhile, stood where she was near the cave. She briefly glanced back at the entrance, remembering the suffering, injured pokémon she had been trying to help. She wanted to go back to the cave and help him in any way she could, but after what Justin had said…

For a moment, Katie turned and walked toward the cave with the intention of continuing to try and treat the scyther, but then stopped, and finally making up her mind, she turned and left, knowing she wouldn't return.

* * *

Stormblade waited a little while before finally venturing out of the cave, staring emptily in the direction the trainer had gone. He couldn't believe it... He could have gotten help, real help…a real chance of survival. He could have been given food at the pokémon center, had treatment for his wounds, and relief from the pain…

_He could have had help_…but now he would have no way of getting any.

He thought about the way the female human had treated him. She had cared about him even though he was a stranger, a wild pokémon. She had dared to get close to him and hadn't judged him simply for what he was. He had never met a human like that, but now…because of what Justin had said, she simply saw him just as he saw him…

…As a _monster_…

Stormblade felt hopeless…truly hopeless. The nice trainer had left and he wasn't sure any other human would ever be so willing to help him as she had. The trainer was gone…as were his chances of ever recovering before the infection became worse…

…If he'd had a chance that is. Though the others had tried to keep it secret from him, he'd heard one of them slip and mention that the Forbidden Attack wounds might never heal. He cringed at the thought. _Would he have to live the rest of his life in agony?_

And would the humans…probably the only ones who could truly help him…_never see him as anything but a merciless killer?

* * *

_

Snowcrystal proudly set down a dead pidgey, beaming at Spark as she stopped in the middle of the clearing. "Guess what?" she said cheerfully, "I caught my first prey away from the mountains!"

"She got lucky," Wildflame stated with a teasing grin.

Snowcrystal swiped her paw in mock-anger at the houndoom, before turning to Spark again. "So…where are Thunder and Stormblade?" she asked, looking around.

"Oh uh…" Spark stammered, "Thunder wants to be alone, and Stormblade…well he…oh look, there he is now!" the jolteon shouted, sounding suddenly relieved.

Stormblade had staggered back into the clearing, and Snowcrystal noticed the wound on his eye. Seeing that she'd noticed, Stormblade turned his head away. Realizing that he didn't seem to want to talk at the moment, Snowcrystal picked up the pidgey and ran over to him, setting it beside him. She knew that he had gone without food the longest; in fact, she hadn't seen him eat anything even since she met him by the ghost-haunted rocks. But to her surprise, he just brushed right by her, not even glancing at the prey.

"I'm not hungry," he muttered.

"What? But-"

"I just want to be left alone," he replied in a dull tone, and limped through the bushes and into the grove of trees. For a moment, Snowcrystal started to follow him, but she decided against it. Maybe it was better if she did leave him alone for a while. Sighing, she lay down with her prey between her paws, waiting for his return…

* * *

Thunder was still sitting beside the small pond, thinking… She had grown tired of traveling with the others. _What did she need them for? Why was she even traveling with them anyway? She should leave…there was no point in her staying with them_. Thunder stared at her reflection in the water, at her face which was stained with blood; from old wounds that had opened up again. With a growl she turned away. She started to walk towards the hills and away from the pool, the pain preventing her from thinking clearly at all. _She was going to leave…go off on her own…she didn't need them at all…_

Making sure once again that no one was near, Thunder slipped off alone into the night. She felt too tired to run, so she simply walked, believing at that moment that the others wouldn't care about her enough to follow. _She didn't have to worry about them seeing her leave…_

Thunder hadn't gone far when she scented blood. She quickly identified the source; a poacher trap…though the pokémon that had been caught was gone. The snap of a twig behind her made her whip around.

"_So…how did you like your short-lived freedom?_"

Thunder backed away. Standing framed in the moonlight between two thick trees was the human she thought she'd been rid of for good._ Master…_

The human walked toward her, not seeming too concerned about her running away. After all, she looked a lot worse off; even thinner than she had been before, and with worse injuries. He knew she wouldn't be running anywhere. Volco, his quilava, hopped down to the muddy ground from the man's shoulder, grinning wickedly at the scyther. His trainer smiled. Thunder's recapture would be easy…she looked close to death already. He would punish her, yes…but not until she'd recovered a bit; he had invested far too much time in training her for her to simply be killed, but when she was strong enough, he'd certainly make her feel pain as she never had before.

Thunder growled, backing away. She stumbled over the chain attached to her arm and landed in a heap on the ground, which caused her shoulder to bleed more. Her former master smiled, reaching for a pokéball. "Still feeling defiant?" the human smirked. Besides Volco, he had only brought one other pokémon with him as he explored the hills, but that would be enough. He threw the red and white sphere into the air and in a flash of white, a familiar shape appeared.

Or at least…somewhat familiar. The Redclaw Thunder remembered had been a growlithe…this was an arcanine. Yet she knew instantly that this was the same pokémon…

Redclaw's eyes widened; clear shock on his face. He lifted his head to look at Thunder, ignoring the thick metal collar that scraped painfully at his neck. Behind him, Master smiled, while Volco watched eagerly. "Go ahead Redclaw," the human growled, "Weaken her!"

Redclaw stood still. His gaze was fixed on Thunder, who looked too weak to be able to stand, let alone run. His expression was a mixture of surprise and sadness. Master looked annoyed. "What?" the trainer muttered, aggravated, "Not smart enough to make decisions on your own? Fine then…flamethrower!"

Still the arcanine did not move. His trainer growled in frustration. "What are you waiting for?" he snapped, "MOVE!" Redclaw slowly turned around, and shook his shaggy head. He gave a low growl, a clear indication that he would not fight.

Master's eyes narrowed. "Fine then…" he muttered, "_Learn the hard way!_" He reached for a small device in his pocket, and pressed a button.

Thunder's eyes widened as Redclaw suddenly let out a terrible scream, collapsing in the mud as he thrashed his paws. Master had activated the electric collar. "Want it to end?" the human shouted, "Then _fight_!" The shock stopped for a moment, and Redclaw lay gasping. Master waited for a moment, but the arcanine did not rise. He pressed the button again.

This time Redclaw's scream was far more terrible, filled with such pain that it startled even Thunder. The arcanine thrashed on the ground, his screams growing louder. Master and Volco watched impassively, their expressions calm and unreadable. Redclaw's cries began to grow weaker, his struggles feebler. In a desperate attempt, the arcanine lifted his paws and tried to slash at the collar with his claws, but to no avail, though he didn't stop even when he tore the claws. The electricity still pounding through his body, he focused every last bit of his strength to try and remove the collar…to end the pain…

And at last he could do no more. Falling back on his side, the arcanine lay still, electricity crackling over his fur as the last spasms finally left his body. Master's cold gaze fell upon him. "Weakling!" he spat, before turning to Thunder. Then he took a step back.

The scyther he had tormented for so long was looking at him in a way he'd never seen her look before. She was standing straight and firm, which surprised him. She had seemed so weak…so feeble before, but now she was standing despite her terrible injuries. Both of her scythes were raised. Through the moonlight he could clearly see each gleaming edge. The light reflected off her blades and onto her fangs, which were bared. But her eyes…he had seen pokémon give him hateful stares many a day; he was used to it, but this…this was something he'd never seen before. He had never seen a stare so full of hatred and anger. Master continued to stare at her in horror. Her blades had never scared him before, only fascinated him. He knew how to deal with dangerous pokémon; how to force them to submit to him. He had never been afraid of one…until now.

Thunder stepped closer, her eyes locked onto her former master's. She walked easily, without a limp. Before, her pain had caused her an unbearable amount of torment; now, it only fueled her anger.

"_You filthy murdering scum!_" Thunder shouted, no longer caring that Master couldn't understand her words; her meaning was clear enough, "You'll regret what you've done! You'll regret everything you did. And I'll make sure you do! I'll make you _pay_! For all the pokémon you've hurt, I'll make you feel their pain a _thousand_ times over!" Then, ignoring her wounds, the scyther took a running leap forward.

Master was going to _pay_…


	19. A Change of Plans

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 19-** **A Change of Plans**

Snowcrystal was having a dream again; one so similar to the one she'd had before. She was back at the mountain…or was she? It seemed like the mountain, but everything around her was hazy, and she seemed to somehow be in another area at the same time. It was almost as if the mountain surroundings were really a thick mist disguised to look that way and which she could barely see through. It seemed like a strange kind of mirage and that what was really there were the strange images of places she had never seen showing faintly through her mist-like surroundings.

The cages containing strange pokémon were back, only this time, she was trapped as well, though not in a cage. A chain, much like Thunder's, was around her back paw and driven deep into the snowy ground; she could not pull it out. Oddly enough, she wasn't very concerned at all with her own predicament; she just wanted to help the other pokémon. And one of them was speaking to her.

"_Stop trying…there's nothing you can do! Not anymore!"_

Snowcrystal was confused at this statement…and why they seemed to want her to stop trying to free herself and help them. Just as she thought that, she heard one of them shout for help, but not to her.

Snowcrystal turned around and for the first time noticed Stormblade standing a little ways away. It was him they had been calling to for help, but he turned and ran, vanishing into the dark mists that were disguised to look like the mountains. Suddenly the haze seemed to clear, and Snowcrystal found herself staring around at familiar surroundings; she was once again awake, and the others were sleeping nearby. It was a bit lighter now, so she figured it must be close to dawn.

She stood up and looked around for a moment and then lay back down on her side, wide awake and alert despite the fact that she'd only had a few hours of sleep. The same worry she had been feeling before returned, and she remembered a conversation she and Wildflame had had with Spark soon after they had returned and after Stormblade had left, about them not finding any information about the poachers, Articuno, or how to heal Stormblade's wounds. Not one of them was sure about what they should do now-Snowcrystal wanted to try and find Rosie and help her, while at the same time, she knew Stormblade wouldn't be able to keep up. Thunder might, but not Stormblade.

Looking around, she realized that Stormblade was still missing. Feeling worried, she glanced toward the dead pidgey that lay in the center of the small clearing. _Stormblade should have been back by now…_

Padding over to Spark, who was sleeping soundly, she prodded him in the shoulder a couple of times before he stirred, looked up at her, and blinked sleepily.

"Snow? It's still dark…why'd ya wake me up?" he mumbled drowsily.

"It's Stormblade…he's not back," she whispered.

"Who?" Spark murmured, obviously still half-asleep.

"Stormblade!" Snowcrystal shouted, rather loudly.

Over by a thick oak tree, Wildflame stirred. "What's all the shouting about?" she growled, not seeming drowsy in the least. She added in a sarcastic voice, "_Are we under attack again?_"

"Stormblade's not back!" Snowcrystal yelled. She was a bit worried about Thunder as well, but when she thought about it, she really didn't expect her to be back, at least not until it was fully morning. It was Stormblade's disappearance that really worried her; why would he leave and not come back all night when he knew he couldn't defend himself if he was attacked by something?

"Don't get so worried over nothing," Wildflame muttered, standing up and shaking her coat free of moss and leaves before glancing over at the pidgey, "And unless you want some scavenger to steal your prey, I suggest you better eat it. If Stormblade doesn't want it, that's his problem."

Snowcrystal scowled; she knew Wildflame and Stormblade had started out as enemies, but she had thought that problem had been at least somewhat solved after the battle with Blazefang's pack. She wished Wildflame would at least try to care a little more.

After a moment, she relaxed, knowing that after all, Wildflame could be right, though she still wanted to save the only food they had for Stormblade when he returned.

"Wildflame's right," Spark agreed, sitting up and shaking his spiky head, "Oh, and if no one wants the prey, I'll have it!"

"No!" Snowcrystal growled, irritated, as she swiped her paw under Spark's as he bolted toward the pidgey, causing him to trip. "You didn't catch it, I did! And I say it's for Stormblade!"

"Huh?" Spark mumbled in a surprised voice, standing up and looking at her with what he hoped was a pitying expression, "What makes him so special? Aren't I special?"

"No," Wildflame answered for her, "Apparently you're not. Now, go find Thunder…me and Snowcrystal will go and look for Stormblade."

Spark made a face at her and stuck out his tongue, but nonetheless, he bolted through the bushes and in the direction of the pond where he'd seen Thunder earlier. Wildflame began to head one way, and pointed with her tail in a different direction, indicating that Snowcrystal should look there. "We'll meet back here, right?" Snowcrystal called to the houndoom, and Wildflame nodded before heading off on her own. Snowcrystal picked up the pidgey and vanished into the surrounding bushes as well.

* * *

"Blazefang," A voice hissed through the bushes. Blazefang was startled into wakefulness as Wildflame's horned head broke through the thick cluster of leaves. 

"Wildflame," the houndour leader growled, "What took you so long? You've waited-"

"Yes, I know," Wildflame muttered, "But Snowcrystal hasn't revealed anything about Articuno, in fact…I don't think she knows anything about where he is at all."

"Not even an idea?" Blazefang replied, his face blank.

Wildflame shook her head. "Don't think so," she mumbled, "Plus her group has a badly injured scyther and a vulpix that was taken by poachers…Stormblade, the scyther, is slowing them down while now they can only think about rescuing Rosie…the vulpix. Either way, they won't find Articuno anytime soon. We're better off looking on our own."

"Fine," Blazefang muttered, "It's about time I got the pack moving away from this place…I don't like being so close to a human habitat." He spat the last few words with distaste, getting up and walking away. Wildflame followed. "What are you doing?" Blazefang growled at her, "Go back with them…you need to stay there in case they find something!"

"But…" Wildflame began, confused.

"You heard me!" Blazefang growled, "Go back…stay with them, and report to me if you find out anything!"

"But how will I find you?" Wildflame cried.

"We won't be too far ahead," Blazefang replied, "Just in case they do know something…or find out…or just happen to get lucky…I'll send a few scouts to find the growlithe from time to time so we still know where they are."

"But-" Wildflame began again, but Blazefang cut her off.

"The growlithe knows something!" he growled suddenly, startling Wildflame into silence, "I know she does! Even if she doesn't know Articuno's exact location she still knows something we don't! Why else would she have started this journey of hers?"

Wildflame was silent, and Blazefang was walking away, back toward the pack. Something told her not to argue with him. With a deep sigh, she turned and headed back to Snowcrystal and the others, strangely not feeling too angry about it. Sure, she wasn't certain that any of them really knew anything, but somehow it seemed like a welcome relief to go back. If anything, she would be somewhat free of Blazefang's tyranny.

* * *

Master took a step backwards, watching as his own scyther leaped toward him, scythes gleaming and ready to kill. Words escaped him; he couldn't think quick enough; his terrified thoughts were only focused on the pokémon in front of him. It would be hopeless to run…scyther were too fast… 

Volco wondered why Master was just standing there. In a sudden surge of panic as the scyther came close enough to strike, close enough to rip Master in half, the quilava darted in front of his owner, firing a blast of flame at Thunder and sending her sprawling backwards into the mud.

The scyther skidded to a halt and righted herself, turning to look straight at Volco. The fire pokémon was standing protectively in front of Master, growling. This seemed to snap Master out of his reverie. "Good job Volco!" he shouted, his usual tough-sounding voice returning, "We can take her easily! She's weak!" Regaining confidence quickly, Volco darted ahead of Master, crouching down and watching Thunder through narrowed eyes.

But his nerves failed him. Thunder was staring straight into his eyes, her gaze boring into him. He had never seen such a terrifying look in a pokémon's eyes before. Thunder didn't just look infuriated…she looked almost insane. She was standing firm, despite the blood that dripped steadily down her side and trickled from her many other wounds. Some of the blood was running down her scythes. Her mouth was open wide enough for Volco to see every one of her razor sharp fangs. He wanted to look away, but his body refused to obey him.

Thunder could tell he was afraid. Fear was plastered all over his face. And this time it was he who was afraid…this time, he was at her mercy. Volco was backing away, his flames flaring up to their brightest.

_He thought he could win by a type advantage…_

Thunder stared hard at the flames, not showing the least bit of fear or seeming threatened at all. Volco was a pet. A pampered, spoiled pokémon who had never been forced to endure what Master had put her through. He had not been tortured day after day since he was very small. He had not been starved or beaten. He had not been forced to fight until he passed out from blood loss.

_He was no match for her…She would rip him to shreds!_

Volco cried out in horror as the scyther ran toward him. The look on Thunder's ravaged face was something out of a nightmare. Dimly, he heard Master shout, "Flame wheel!" And more out of fear than actually comprehending what his owner was saying to him, he fired the blast of searing flames at Thunder. The scyther was too injured to be able to move quickly. The attack didn't miss.

Thunder collapsed, and then slowly began to stagger upright, her head lowered. But Volco did not hear a cry of pain. It startled him, because even Thunder had cried out whenever she had been struck with a powerful fire attack in battle; he knew she had a weakness to fire and Master knew it as well, for he had used it as punishment on her many times. It seemed even stranger that the scyther hadn't made a sound, due to the many other wounds she had; that could only have made the pain worse. A few seconds later, Volco suddenly realized that Thunder _was_ making a sound, though it was not one of pain. Instead of crying out, Thunder was laughing…at him…as if he had just done something rather silly and embarrassing. But it definitely wasn't a pleasant laugh, and it unnerved him even more. Thunder slowly lifted her head up toward him, her eyes glaring as she grinned wickedly at him in a way that made him want to run as far away as possible. Yet once again, he found he couldn't move.

Thunder suddenly stood up straight, acting as if the attack hadn't even happened. "_You and Master tortured me all those years, and now, you think a simple FLAME WHEEL is going to stop me?_" the scyther cried out mockingly, a jeering tone in her voice.

Volco didn't have any time to react to her statement before the enraged scyther was upon him, gashing him across the side of his face with one of her blades, while the other swung toward him at the same moment, and if he hadn't moved his paw to the left by accident in that very instant, the scythe would have severed it.

Volco screeched in pain and tumbled backwards, one paw held lightly over the deep cut on his face. Master was shaking as he watched the scene, but he still called out, "Flame wheel again!"

However, Volco didn't have the chance to fire another attack. Thunder continuously slashed at his weakening body, ignoring his cries of pain as he lay helplessly in the mud, no longer having the strength to even keep his flames up. Volco could hear Thunder shouting, "_See what it's like NOW? How do you like it?_" He didn't even try to reply; he could barely comprehend her words and the pain was too great, only becoming worse with each new attack.

In a panic, Master reached for Volco's pokéball, only to find that he couldn't return him-Thunder kept getting in the way. Master watched Volco finally managed to stagger backward and away from Thunder, but only collapsed a moment later as the scyther stood over him. He weakly placed an injured paw in front of his bloody face, holding it out in a pleading gesture for her to stop, staring fearfully up at his tormenter as he remembered…

…He had seen Thunder being beaten, both by Master and in battle. He'd even carried out some of her punishments in the past and never thought anything of it. He'd often watched her being hurt badly as a penalty, even laughed at her, but never had he once thought that he would one day be in her place. And now, Thunder absolutely terrified him. He had seen her being beaten, but he had also seen her being made to fight battles to the death, watched her as she was forced to kill her opponents…seen the terror in their eyes…the very same terror he was feeling now. Then suddenly it struck him fully. _She was going to kill him._

And something snapped.

Volco's eyes narrowed as they suddenly filled with a terrible rage…rage at the thought that she, nothing but a lowly _servant_ of Master would ever dare harm him. And with a strength he hadn't known he possessed, he dodged the scyther's next blow, landing spryly on all four paws. Then his fur started to glow.

Thunder staggered back, momentarily blinded as the brightness intensified and the quilava's luminous form began to expand. Behind her, Master smiled and placed Volco's pokéball back into his pocket. There was no need for that; the tables had just turned…

When at last the dazzling glow subsided and Thunder could see clearly again, Volco was more than twice his previous size. The fire type now stood on two legs rather than four, and was taller than she was. His fur was still the same yellow and dark blue, only it was thicker, and she could barely make out some large red spots on the back of his neck before he turned to face her completely.

The newly evolved typhlosion's ears lay flat against his head as he bared his now quite larger fangs at the scyther. Now it was his turn to laugh. "Who's stronger _now?_" he cried, running forward as huge, brilliant flames erupted around his neck, much bigger than the flames he had had as a quilava, and with a roar he ripped his claws into the startled Thunder's face and slammed her to the ground.

Startled by how quickly the attack had come, Thunder twisted free from Volco's grasp and brought her blades upward toward the typhlosion, but he had moved out of the way. As Thunder struggled to stand, Volco bent down on all fours, feeling strangely excited as he discovered a new outlet for his power. He had used flame wheel many times before as a quilava, but this was his first flamethrower. And it was made all the more powerful by the strength gained from his evolution. Thunder darted to avoid the blast, and though she managed to get out of its direct path, the flames still seared across her side and leg…badly. The scyther tried to get up again, only to find that her leg wouldn't move. She tried to stand anyway, but the mud was far too thick and slippery; she only stumbled. She didn't think she could fly; her wing hurt terribly and when Volco had pushed her down before, she had landed on it the wrong way. She could still see Volco standing at a distance, ready to use another fire attack.

"Coward!" she spat, raising her blades in as threatening a manner as she could in her current state, "Are you afraid to get close enough to face me in a real battle? Are you just going to cower over there and hope your fire attacks hit me?" Volco merely smirked in reply, and fired another blast of flame.

Thunder ducked and managed to crawl out of the way just in time, suddenly finding herself on firmer ground. With a cry she sprang up and, ignoring the searing agony as pain shot up her leg every time she tried to stand on it, she charged toward Volco with a speed that surprised him. The typhlosion whipped around, ready to fire another flamethrower. Thunder reached him before he could, swiping her blade at him with cunning accuracy. Volco tried to dodge, but still felt the sharp blade edge slice into the side of his face.

With a roar of agony the typhlosion lifted his paws to the jagged cut, ignoring Master's shouts to attack. When he pulled his paws away from the injury, he realized with shocking horror that he could no longer see out of his left eye. Growling in rage, he charged toward Thunder without even trying to launch a fire attack, staring at her furiously with his remaining eye.

Thunder swiped at him with one of her blades, but he caught it in his paw, holding the weakened scyther's arm firm and refusing to let go even when the scythe drew blood. Gritting his teeth, he twisted her arm sharply to the side to avoid her scythe slashing at him and flung her to the rocky ground. Thunder merely closed her eyes and didn't cry out; though she was starting to feel that the battle was already lost. Master no longer had any control over this enraged typhlosion; he would try to kill her whether his owner wanted him to or not. However, she was not willing to give him the satisfaction of watching her give in.

With a growl she lunged toward Volco, who merely slammed her back into the muddy ground again. Feeling some of his anger fade into calm, Master's typhlosion walked over to the scyther, ignoring the blood that flowed from his ruined eye socket. "It's good to see you back in your proper place," he growled, standing over her, "Alone…defeated…and under Master's control!" Using the flames around his neck, he heated up his claws before bringing them down on the weakened scyther as he kept talking, accenting each word with another blow, "You…worthless…excuse…for a…pokémon!"

"Volco!" Master's sudden shout resounded over the area, causing Volco to look up a moment before a pokémon…another scyther, crashed into his side and brought him staggering back into the mud.

Thunder looked up, and through her hazy vision, she could see the other scyther slashing at the typhlosion's side and shoulder. "Stormblade…" she muttered in confusion.

Volco could sense that this new opponent was weak as well. Whirling around, he quickly locked his claws around Stormblade's throat before easily bringing the weaker scyther to the ground. Stormblade felt what little remaining strength he had leave him completely; the initial attack had cost him too much. Volco dug his claws into Stormblade's burned shoulders, pinning him against the mud-slicked rocks. "What's this?" Volco smirked, glancing back at his other foe, "Did you find yourself a friend while you were gone, Thunder? Maybe I should finish roasting him properly!"

Stormblade tried to twist free, knowing that any second he'd feel the terrible pain. But the fire attack never came. Volco was too exhausted; the flames around his neck extinguished and the strength to use fire attacks gone. Ever so slightly annoyed, Volco suddenly tore his claws as deeply into Stormblade's wounds as he could before ripping savagely sideways.

Thunder looked up as Stormblade screamed, her blurry vision seeming to clear slightly. _Volco was attacking Stormblade._ The typhlosion was too worn out to use his fire attacks, and was instead using his claws, finding it much easier to cause damage to a normally tough pokémon by attacking him where he was injured. Every time Stormblade screamed, Thunder flinched, as if it was happening to her. Then all at once Volco backed away, a bad wound in his side from Stormblade's scythe.

Stormblade had not simply given up. Master, who had been standing at a safe distance, suddenly looked fearful as Volco toppled over onto the ground; the wound was obviously serious. "V…Volco?" he whispered, quickly taking out the injured typhlosion's pokéball and returning him, before darting away in a panic, leaving the two scyther and Redclaw's motionless form where they lay.

Thunder sat up slowly, feeling her anger fade away into shock as she looked around at what had been their battlefield. Her gaze fell toward a spot on a rockier patch of ground that was stained with dark blood, where she had attacked Volco before he evolved. She seemed shocked and confused, as if she could hardly believe what she'd done. The sound of approaching human vehicles interrupted her thoughts.

Alarm flared through her; she recognized the sound. It was just like the sound of the truck that had taken Rosie away. "Poachers!" she hissed, staggering to her feet and starting to run toward the bushes. She could make it…if she left now…

Suddenly she stopped, looking back toward Stormblade. She realized there was no way he'd ever make it away from the humans in time. The cuts Volco had inflicted were deep and still oozing blood, and she was sure they would make the already infected wounds even worse. He was unconscious now, and he had probably passed out from pain. Only the fact that she could see him breathing told her that he was alive. Thunder turned, looking toward the bushes. But for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to leave. Realizing she was probably missing her only chance of escape if these humans were poachers, she stumbled over to Stormblade and stood near him. It didn't seem right to leave him there, and despite the fact that the human vehicles were obviously getting closer, she didn't want to run away. She readied herself, hearing the sounds of the human machines grow louder. She knew that whatever was coming, it was a battle she couldn't win. Yet she was certain she wasn't going to back down.

* * *

_These are all the chapters I've finished currently, but I am working on Chapter 20 so it will hopefully be up soon!_


	20. Deception

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 20-** **Deception**

"Still no sign of him?" Wildflame asked Snowcrystal as the growlithe returned to the clearing, looking defeated.

Snowcrystal shook her head. "I've looked everywhere around here," she replied, "And all this mud and rain would have disguised his scent." She was confused; they still hadn't found Stormblade, and she would have thought that an injured scyther would be easy to track.

Wildflame nodded and was about to reply when Spark came stumbling back to the clearing, his spiky fur plastered with mud. "Thunder's gone," he stated rather simply before tiredly collapsing in a heap.

"_What?_" cried Snowcrystal, running over to him, "I thought you knew where she was!"

"I did," Spark mumbled, lifting his head, "I_ knew_ where she was. I don't know anymore." He then lay his head down again.

"We'll have to find both of them now!" Snowcrystal cried, running ahead, "Follow me…Spark! Show me where you saw her last-"

_BANG!_

Snowcrystal stopped in her tracks, frozen in place by the sound of the gunshot, as she and the others looked around fearfully. "Poachers," Wildflame growled, "We need to get going…we need to leave this place…I'd bet there's poachers and traps everywhere!"

"We're not leaving without Stormblade and Thunder!" Snowcrystal cried, "What if the poachers are attacking _them_?" Without waiting for a reply, she sprinted off towards the sound.

"NO!" Wildflame shouted, quickly intercepting her, "Do you want to get shot?" Seeing Snowcrystal's panicked expression, she sighed. "Look, you would only get yourself killed…I'll go check it out…I know how to hide well. You two stay here, and I _mean_ it!" Before Snowcrystal could object, Wildflame had run off.

* * *

It did not take Wildflame long to reach the area where the gun had fired. Sneaking ever so cautiously while using whatever cover she could find, the houndoom managed to get close enough to see two humans clearly. Both were holding guns, but there were no signs of any scyther. And in the slowly increasing daylight, they would have been easy to spot. Wildflame relaxed a bit; Thunder and Stormblade were not here.

As she peered closer, she noticed that one of the humans was holding the limp body of a small spearow. Figuring that the spearow was what the humans must have shot, she quietly turned around and headed back, careful not to make any unnecessary noise.

However, as she walked back towards the others, she could not get the image of the poachers out of her mind. _They had guns…_and it terrified her. She wanted to get away from this poacher trap-ridden place- far away, but they would never be able to leave until the two scyther were found. And even then, it would be slow going with Stormblade in tow. They were very lucky, she realized, to not have been captured or attacked yet. But that luck wouldn't last long. The only relatively safe place anywhere near the area was the human city, and that was, in a way, almost as dangerous as the poachers. She wanted to get away from these lands as fast as possible, so she could be free from the threat of poachers…far away from here, where Snowcrystal could then possibly lead her to finding a clue about Articuno.

'_Articuno…'_ Wildflame thought, a plan beginning to form in her mind. Blazefang had seemed like he wanted to get rid of her, and made her stay in Snowcrystal's little group. But what if…what if she somehow managed to find Articuno first? She'd go straight to Firedash, and receive her reward, maybe even a higher-ranking position within the pack, while Blazefang either wandered aimlessly across unknown lands, or simply came in 'second place'. It seemed possible; after all, the growlithe _did_ know a bit more about Articuno than the houndour pack did; maybe Snowcrystal already had some sort of clue she wasn't telling anyone about? And after all, Blazefang had no idea of where he was leading the pack. If anything, he was just as lost as they were.

Speeding up now that she was out of sight and hearing range of the poachers, Wildflame raced eagerly back toward Snowcrystal and Spark. She would somehow find a way to reach Articuno before Blazefang did, and reap the rewards herself. Blazefang didn't deserve them. The biggest problem with this idea was, at the moment, Stormblade. She knew they'd be lucky to get half a mile in a whole day while having to put up with his injuries. And of course, there was still the threat of poachers. They could be caught easily…and what if Stormblade and Thunder had already been caught while everyone else was looking for them? She narrowed her eyes, trying to imagine what Snowcrystal would do. She and Spark would set off to go free them before they could be taken away, or if they had, they might try and find them anyway, and end up getting themselves caught either way. Then Wildflame's chance of finding out if Snowcrystal knew anything about Articuno would be completely ruined.

She started to pace slower, still thinking. '_Well…what if they haven't been captured? What if…what if…_' She stopped, and finished out loud, "What if they've been shot?" And suddenly another idea formed in her mind. Snowcrystal and Spark had both heard the gunshot, but they didn't know it had been a spearow that the humans had shot. What if she didn't tell them that? What if…what if she told them it had been Stormblade and Thunder?

With this new idea in mind, Wildflame ran off again, feeling that their traveling problems had just been solved. With Thunder and Stormblade no longer in the picture, everything would go much faster.

* * *

Snowcrystal looked up anxiously as Wildflame bounded back into the rocky clearing. Spark sat up, looking just as worried. The look on Wildflame's face only served to make them even more concerned. "Wildflame, what happened?" Snowcrystal asked, as the houndoom turned as if to walk away. Wildflame stopped, and didn't answer, her head held low. She was breathing hard; they figured she must have run a long way.

"Did…did you find them?" Spark asked uncertainly.

"Yes…" Wildflame replied, "But…" She stopped for a moment, looking up at Spark and Snowcrystal, whose expressions turned from hopeful to panicked. And then, for some reason she couldn't explain, she couldn't bring herself to lie to them about the two scyther being dead. '_Captured…' _she thought, _'I'll just say they were captured…and far away by now…' _Looking back up at the others, she continued. "Poachers have captured them…and their machine drove away just as I arrived. I couldn't chase after them…they had guns…but I don't think…I don't think they actually managed to shoot Thunder or Stormblade…but they're probably already miles away…and what's worse…there's other poachers heading this way. We have to leave as soon as possible."

She waited a moment, unsure of how Spark or Snowcrystal would react. For a moment, the two just stood silently, then Spark whispered in a confused-sounding voice, "They…got captured? But…but how! Wasn't there anything you could have done?"

"No," Wildflame replied, shaking her head, "I was too late…"

"But how could you just-" Spark shouted, but Wildflame interrupted.

"You said so yourself, Spark," the houndoom whispered quietly, "When poachers capture a pokémon, there's nothing anyone can do but move on…and if we don't leave now, they'll get us too…do you think Stormblade would want that?"

Spark was silent again, while Snowcrystal just looked horrified, unsure whether to believe it all. After a moment, the jolteon shook his head. "No…" he answered, "But I don't know how I'll survive out in the wild without Stormblade…he…he taught me how to hunt and all about the wild…"

"You still have us," Wildflame told him, trying to sound comforting, "But not for long if we don't leave. The poachers are coming, and the only thing we can do right now is to leave…we can't stay here and worry, not while they're coming…we have to leave this area, head to new lands away from poachers, and seek out Articuno once more. It's what the others would have wanted, anyway."

Spark nodded sadly and the three headed urgently off through the trees, Wildflame in the lead as she urged them to go faster, and despite their shock, Snowcrystal and Spark could sense that urgency was needed. Snowcrystal could hardly believe that more of her friends had been taken away from them, probably forever. However, she was not without hope. _'Maybe…' _she thought, _'Maybe they'll find Rosie…and find a way to escape…' _Just as the thought crossed her mind, she wondered if it really was hopeless. _'No…' _she thought, _'It's not hopeless…and when I find Articuno…I'll find help… I'll find a way to free them someday!'

* * *

_

Thunder was pretty sure there were two human vehicles, and that seemed strange. Knowing that any second they'd appear over one of the hills, she turned toward Stormblade, nudging him. He didn't move. She nudged him again, but got no response. "Come on, wake up!" she growled, frustrated. She glanced toward a group of bushes, and not knowing what else to do, she grabbed one of his wings in her teeth and started dragging him through the mud and towards the bushes. Thunder was glad he was unconscious; this _had _to hurt.

She managed to get him into the shelter of the bushes just as one of the human vehicles stopped a small distance away, closer to where Redclaw was. There was no time to try and move the arcanine; not that Thunder thought she could anyway, as he was both bigger and heavier than Stormblade.

Thunder backed up further into the bushes, but not so far that she couldn't see the humans through the branches. The second of the humans' vehicles stopped not far away from the first, and Thunder stood completely still, hoping she wouldn't be noticed.

Unfortunately, at about that moment, Stormblade started to stir. Fearing he might wake up and attract the attention of the humans, she sharply brought the dull side of her blade down on his head, and he fell still again. That being done, she turned her head in the direction of the humans again, watching. After a moment, she began to realize that they probably weren't poachers after all. For one, they had pokémon with them. Thunder was mildly surprised to see that these pokémon were growlithe, and there were about four or five of them that stepped out of the vehicles alongside the humans. They looked healthy and well-fed, so she figured they must either be pets or had been recently captured.

Another pokémon appeared, and Thunder was surprised to recognize Sid, and not just Sid, but _his trainer_ as well. Thunder stared-what was the human she had Wildflame had had to fight off earlier doing here? To her surprise, Katie ran right up to Redclaw, kneeling beside the fallen arcanine. Thunder was just barely close enough to hear her words.

"The poachers must have heard us coming!" she cried to the others, "And it seems like they've hurt yet another pokémon…"

Another human stepped up to her, and though Thunder wasn't sure, she thought he might belong to the police. The police were a group of humans Master had always tried to avoid at all costs, usually having Volco look out for them when it was needed, but Thunder was never sure as to why. Needless to say, however, she had had bad experiences regarding Master's hatred of these 'police'.

The 'police-human' turned to another and shouted, "I'll take some of the growlithe and see if we can track them down…and I'll send one of them back if we find anything!" One of the growlithe barked eagerly-Thunder only caught a few of his words, and he and three other growlithe raced off, apparently trying to find the poachers or Master.

By now, one of the other humans was examining Redclaw, particularly his collar. "This one was probably caught by the poachers a long time ago…then escaped," she was saying, "He's alive, but just barely…by the looks of this collar, it must have been a very powerful shock that did this…I suppose the one who owned him decided he was worthless…" she added sadly, before turning to the last remaining police officer. "We need to get him to the Pokémon Center."

Still confused and unsure of what was going on, Thunder didn't know whether to run and help Redclaw or stay put. Though by the look of the strong-looking growlithe, she decided to stay put, knowing they'd be able to take her down very quickly if she had no way of surprising them.

"We can't leave yet though," Katie was saying, which brought Thunder's attention back to her and the other humans rather than Redclaw, "We still haven't found that scyther…the one the poachers must have attacked…he couldn't have gotten far from the rock cave but we didn't have much time to look."

"But we heard the battle going on," the police officer replied, "We had to come strait here, but for now, Nurse Joy is right…we have to take this arcanine back to the city."

Thunder saw Sid's trainer nodding understandingly, and then focusing her attention on trying to keep her aipom from running off as the other humans prepared to leave, carefully working together to lift Redclaw into the back of one of their vehicles. Thunder wasn't quite sure what to do; the humans sounded concerned for Redclaw, but she assumed they must have had a reason for it; maybe they would wait for him to recover and then force him to fight for them; a human wouldn't just suddenly decide to go out of their way to help a wild pokémon.

As Thunder watched the remaining growlithe run towards the other human vehicle, she saw one of them stop. He lifted his nose to the air a few times and sniffed, before shouting to the humans, "There's something over here!" He then started running…right in Thunder's direction.

Thunder backed away, realizing that they'd just been discovered, as Sid's trainer and one of the other humans, the police officer, got out of the vehicle and started following the growlithe, who was now quickly nearing her hiding place. "Well…" she muttered bitterly, mentally preparing herself for another battle, "Here we go again…"

Just as the growlithe was close enough, Thunder sprang from the bushes, taking the canine pokémon completely by surprise and knocking him clear off his feet. The growlithe then stood up shakily; a large but shallow cut across his fluffy white chest. Katie screamed; Thunder's sudden appearance had taken her by surprise. The police officer's growlithe opened his mouth to fire a flamethrower, but at a shout from his trainer, stopped, and dodged Thunder's next attack instead. As Thunder turned towards him, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned briefly to see another human holding a strange type of gun. Before she could panic, the human fired the gun, and whatever was inside it struck her in the shoulder, but it wasn't a bullet and it wasn't killing her, so she ignored it and ran toward the growlithe again.

To her annoyance, the growlithe seemed to do nothing but dodge her attacks and run in random directions, trying to throw her off. It was making her dizzy, and it probably wasn't wise for her to be running while she had such serious wounds. She felt something small and sharp strike her in the back, much like what she had felt before, but it hardly hurt, and Thunder was sure the humans must be crazy if they thought that was going to take her down. Then suddenly, for seemingly no reason at all, she collapsed, her vision starting to fade into darkness. Unwilling to give in so easily, she tried to stand up and fight, but her body didn't seem to want to move anymore. For a couple moments she tried to stand again, but she was starting to loose consciousness. The last thing she saw before everything faded completely was one of the humans walking up to her…

* * *

Hesitantly, Katie approached the unconscious scyther with Nurse Joy and a pokémon ranger, who'd fired the tranquilizer gun, beside her. "Is this the scyther you were telling me about?" Joy asked Katie, giving her a worried look.

"N-no…" Katie whispered, shaking her head, "The other one didn't have a collar. And this one…" she looked closer, and stepped back, horrified. "This one looks like it's been shot…and it must have belonged to the poachers for a long time, from the look of it. I don't know how it was even able to stand, let alone fight!"

Katie didn't wait for the others' responses. She walked away, while Nurse Joy and the others went to help get the scyther into the pokémon ranger's vehicle where the arcanine was still. She had seen enough injured pokémon for one night, and she had never liked having to see a pokémon hurt. It was for this reason that she had decided to go back after she had left Justin's scyther by the rocks, and bring help.

She did believe what Justin had said about the scyther; there was no way he would lie to her about something like that. Maybe about the reasons as to why he quit pokémon training, but _not_ something like that. Yet, she had still thought that no matter what a pokémon had done, no pokémon deserved to be in that much pain. However, when they'd brought help and found the place where she'd seen the scyther before, he had left, and the rain had washed away his scent, so the police growlithe couldn't follow his scent or any of the poachers'. Katie had also previously thought about the reasons as to _why_ the scyther had been injured in the first place, and realized that since there were no fire types powerful enough to have caused such damage to the scyther anywhere near this area, she had concluded that the culprits must have been poachers, and had gotten the police before setting out to find the scyther.

When they had arrived at the rocky area where she had found the scyther before, they had heard the distant sounds of a battle, but by the time they arrived, the poachers had left, and all that they found was an injured arcanine and later, the other scyther. With a sudden surge of anger she realized that the growlithe probably wouldn't be able to track down the poachers who'd done this-everything was too wet and muddy, and it was starting to rain again.

A sudden excited barking from one of the growlithes alerted her attention, and she saw the police officer parting the branches of a group of bushes, revealing the still form of the other scyther-Justin's. Katie was confused for a moment, but then realized that the female scyther must have been protecting him. She watched the others bringing Justin's scyther to the ranger's vehicle as well, before climbing into it herself. Her shinx stood up as she stepped inside, happily jumping on her lap. She knew it was better to leave with the others now; there was nothing she could do to help the police catch the poachers, and she wanted to see if the pokémon would be all right, and it was important that they got to the Pokémon Center as quickly as possible. As Nurse Joy got in the truck as well, Katie heard what sounded like muffled whimpering, and turned to the back of the truck, realizing that the arcanine was beginning to come around. Softly petting the fire pokémon's head, she tried to calm him as the vehicle drove off, back toward the city.

* * *

The other police officer watched as his growlithe came back, panting and exhausted. He could tell from their looks that the poachers had not been found. He sighed. "It's all right," he told them, petting the fluffy pokémon, "I'm afraid we won't be able to track anything in this weather."

Regretfully, he and the pokémon turned and headed back toward the site of the battle.

* * *

By the afternoon, Rosie was exhausted. Battered, weakened, and alone, the vulpix lay curled up against the bars in her cage, without even Nightcloud to keep her company. The humans had rotated the pokémon guards, and she didn't feel like talking to the granbull who kept giving her angry glares.

Throughout the day, it had been one battle after another, and Rosie had only once been allowed to have a drink of water. The humans had also given her a small amount of food, the hard brown pellets that most trainer pokémon ate. It had tasted vile, as if it was starting to go bad, but she had been too famished to care. The battles she had fought had been difficult, and from what she could tell, the humans were disappointed in her, and according to the other pokémon, that was _not_ a good thing.

Rosie jumped, startled, as the door opened and a human walked in, stepping beside her cage. Some of the other pokémon in the room gave her worried looks; obviously it was a bad thing if the humans approached a pokémon's cage randomly after that pokémon had repeatedly failed them. Solemnly, the human unlocked her cage, activating the shock collar briefly to stun her before dragging her out of the cage and onto the floor. However, just as Rosie was preparing to fight her hardest to get away, she realized that the human didn't seem intent on punishing her. Instead, he reached into his pocket.

"If you aren't a good battler," he was saying, seemingly not knowing or caring if she could understand, "You'll still fetch a high price from collectors." Rosie stared as he brought the object out of his pocket. It was a fire stone.

The human pointed the device that activated the collar's shock at her, threatening her to stay still as he loosened the collar. Before Rosie could even try to free herself of it, the man pressed the fire stone against the top of her head.

At once, both stone and vulpix began to glow. Involuntarily, Rosie closed her eyes at the surprisingly warm stone was pressed against her fur. She felt a sudden, odd sensation, and with a flicker of excitement, despite her current situation, she realized…she was _evolving_… The strange sensation grew stronger, and she could feel her tails lengthening, and three more like them growing in place. At the same time, she could feel herself growing at a seemingly impossible rate; her legs becoming longer, sleeker, her muzzle lengthening and becoming more pointed, and fur growing thicker, and longer too.

And for a reason she could not understand, she felt older…wiser. She also no longer felt weak or exhausted. She felt as if she could run for miles, defeat any opponent, do anything…

Rosie's eyes flew open. The transformation was complete. Feeling the loosened collar still tight around her neck, Rosie twisted away from the human and reached up with a forepaw, feeling her claws snag on the collar as she pulled, enjoying the satisfaction that came with the resulting snap as the collar fell to the ground. With a growl, she turned on her captor, racing forward towards him.

However, it was at that moment that another human appeared from the doorway, and before Rosie could take notice of what he was doing, he had thrown a rope around her neck. The ninetales was yanked back, shocked and wondering if the poachers had anticipated an attack, as she struggled on the floor, seeking to free the rope from her neck.

But the human only pulled tighter, and with shocking alarm, Rosie felt her windpipe being forced closed. Coughing and struggling, she thrashed about on the floor, until her struggles grew weak enough that the other human could fit a spare collar around her neck. Only then did he loosen and remove the rope, and by that time, Rosie was too weak and still gasping for breath, thus unable to resist.

As she lay still, trying to recover, she thought bitterly about how much she wished she could place a curse on both of the poachers…no, all of them. But there was no way a young, barely evolved ninetales could accomplish that feat upon just evolving, and she had no idea of how it was done. In fact, she didn't even know how to use flamethrower.

Through a haze of pain she felt one of the poachers stroking her long, thick fur, and wished she had the strength to turn and bite him. At least, she thought, this would mean an end to the battles…now they would just try and sell her to a collector, and if anything, maybe they'd try to make her appear as healthy and strong as possible, and at least give her a decent meal.

But all the same, as she was dragged back forcefully into her cage by both of the humans, she couldn't help but wonder…if her troubles had only just begun.

* * *

_This chapter took a little longer than I thought it would (writer's block ), but hopefully the next one won't take as long to write._


	21. The Hope of Escape

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 21-** **The Hope of Escape**

Cyclone was lost.

All the vaporeon could see was sand. In every direction, there was nothing more, simply miles upon miles of sand and dunes. Where was his trainer when he needed him? Gone. Long gone. Miles away by now. He would never find him again, and truthfully, he didn't care. That boy was a traitor.

And because of him, Cyclone was lost.

The vaporeon wearily stumbled across the shifting sand, ignoring the pain that seared across his scorched paw pads. He was far too dehydrated to manage even the simplest water attack, even now, when he needed it most. He regretted the day he'd made the decision to travel with the boy instead of being released back to his forest home. But the water stone had been far too tempting.

And because of it, Cyclone was lost.

As the weary pokémon carried on, his paw slipped, and he was sent crashing into the burning sand. Why had his trainer been foolish enough to think he could travel all the way through this desert? He was probably just as lost…that fool… The vaporeon was glad he had left the boy; left before he lost the strength to perform water attacks. He had needed the water more than that stupid human and his other worthless pokémon.

And yet, Cyclone was still lost.

Realizing that he needed to keep going, or else perish, the vaporeon staggered to his feet, only to fall again. He tried yet again; once, twice, and a third time. All attempts failed.

Cyclone was hopelessly lost…

…Yet he would not let himself die. No, his trainer didn't deserve that satisfaction.

Wearily, his paws scrabbled in the sand as he slowly dragged himself forward, when a glimmer of sunlight reflecting off something nearby caught his eye.

There were rocks close by him, and it looked as if they had once been deeply covered in sand. Another bright flash of light made him blink. He crawled closer. His eyes widened as he reached the burning-hot stones, noticing what looked like a deep green emerald placed firmly into a crack between three different rocks. He stared, perplexed, at the stone. It looked far too tightly jammed between the rocks to be pried loose, but out of curiosity, he reached out with his paw and touched its shiny surface. What felt like raw energy surged through his body, and his eyes widened in shock, his mouth open in a silent scream.

Then it all went dark.

* * *

Rosie's cage now seemed very, very small. After evolving, she was quite a bit bigger than she had been before, and although still small by a ninetales's standards, she wasn't small enough for the cage. The ceiling was far too low to allow her to stand, and she found it hard to turn around in the narrow space.

Irritably, she clawed at the cage's door, but more out of frustration than actually trying to escape. Nightcloud was nowhere to be seen, and the guards were being switched out often. For a while now, the humans had ignored her. She was no longer being trained for battle, and probably wouldn't ever be, she thought; now she was just a rare pokémon to be sold for a high price.

However, since her evolution, she had not been feeling afraid. Angry and aggravated, but no longer afraid, not even when the humans had brutally stopped her from escaping. She was done being scared of these humans…she was a ninetales now, and a ninetales didn't need to be afraid of anything. Glaring angrily through the bars of the cage and looking around the room, Rosie figured it was about time she escaped.

The problem was…she didn't know how.

Sighing, she glanced down at where the bars met the cage floor; a few of them were scorched black, a result of her previous attempts at trying to use ember to help her break the bars. Looking back up at a few of the other caged pokémon, Rosie wondered how long they had been trapped in there. "Hm…" she mumbled, realizing something, "Wonder if any of them know how long they keep the pokémon here before they sell them…" Reaching her paw out, she tapped her claws against the cage of another pokémon, a linoone. "You," she muttered quickly, "How long are we gonna be stuck here?"

The linoone stirred and looked at her drowsily; he must have been asleep. "Er…what?" he muttered.

Rosie rolled her eyes. "Never mind, you're hopeless. Uh...you. Idiot guard…how long do I have to wait before I'm sold to some stupid trainer?"

The tropius standing as guard gave her a rather un-amused look, then shook his head and looked away. "Fine!" Rosie growled in annoyance, "Don't answer!"

"Why does it matter?" the linoone in the cage next to her suddenly mumbled, "You'll probably just end up being treated the same way whatever trainer you're sold to. I suppose we'll be living in cages the rest of our lives." He sighed. "That's a long time…"

"You think it's bad for you?" Rosie replied, "That's a thousand years for me, and I don't plan on spending it all belonging to some worthless human!" Turning away from him, Rosie started to think to herself about escape. She had found a slightly loose bar at the side of her cage, but no amount of moving it had made it any looser, and she had abandoned that plan a while ago. She could nothing to open the cage door, and the only way the cage would ever be opened was when the humans came to feed her. And if she attacked them, she would get electrocuted. Yet it wouldn't be enough to kill her. "Maybe I can be stronger now…" she whispered quietly to herself, "Maybe I'll be able to stand it long enough to get out and run…If someone like Thunder can do it, I can…"

A noise from the room beyond interrupted her thoughts. One of the humans was shouting at another, and Rosie tried to peer through the doorway, hoping to be able to see what was going on.

To her annoyance, she couldn't see anything, though she could hear what sounded like fighting, and it wasn't a normal battle considering that both humans and pokémon were screaming.

"What's going on?" someone cried, equally confused.

Rosie listened carefully, hearing sounds of battle and cries of pokémon and humans alike coming from another room further on. Could it be that some of the pokémon were actually managing to fight back?

* * *

Thunder awoke slowly, dazed and confused. She realized she was still outside, but in a much grassier and less rocky place than she remembered. Confused, she opened her eyes, instantly closing them again at the brightness of the sun.

Wait…brightness?

Thunder opened her eyes again. Last time she remembered, it was barely reaching dawn, but now, it looked like midday.

Confused, Thunder stood up, looking around for any signs of humans. But all she could see were several trees and many strange-looking plants, but not far away from where she was standing, something else startled her. Through the leaves of the plants and trees, she could see the bars to some sort of gate. Confused, she walked closer, and as she did, the glint of metal from another direction caught her eye. Turning, she could see bars on the opposite side of the area.

As she ran towards those bars, she noticed something strange. Looking down at her arm, she realized with surprise that the chain was gone. The shackle was still there, however, though the chain itself had been severed. Reaching up with her arm to the collar around her neck, she could feel that it was still there; maybe if the humans who'd put the gate there had wanted to remove it they hadn't found a way how to yet.

Looking down at her other arm, she noticed it had been bandaged, as had many of her other wounds. Both confused and annoyed, she quickly tore each bandage off, before hastily running alongside the barred gate, realizing that it completely encircled the small area she was enclosed in. There was a similar set of bars above the enclosure, meaning she couldn't fly out. Carefully, Thunder peered at some of the bars that stuck up from the ground to form one side of the gate. They didn't look very strong…

Mustering all her strength, she swiped both of her scythes at the nearest two bars, though despite them being rather thin, they were incredibly strong, and seemed barely scratched despite her efforts. She kept trying, and finally stopped when a small piece of one of her battered scythes chipped off.

Frustrated and confused, Thunder thought with a hint of panic, '_I'm in a CAGE…a very large cage…_'

"Thunder?" A voice startled Thunder into turning around. Another pokémon had approached the bars from the other side. Thunder quickly recognized Redclaw, and though many of the arcanine's wounds were bandaged, he looked much healthier than he had before. Thunder peered further through the bars and noticed more a ways away, and realized that Redclaw wasn't outside-he was in another large 'cage' just like hers, which was also grassy and had several plants and trees within it as well as grass. However, if the humans thought they were replicating an arcanine's natural habitat, they were doing a poor job; Thunder didn't recognize most of the plants and she doubted if some of them were even real. However, Redclaw seemed calm. "Relax," he told her, "The humans have been gone for a while. And there's food here-it isn't poisoned. There should be some-"

"Where are we?" Thunder snapped, glaring at him. She could only begin to wonder why Redclaw was so calm when they were clearly once again in the possession of humans.

"I don't know," Redclaw admitted, "There's a large building near all these pokémon enclosures, but there are nicer humans there. You've been knocked out all morning so you wouldn't have seen but they gave me medicine that made me feel less pain. They're trying to help us, I think…"

"If they were trying to help us then why are we in a _cage?_" Thunder spat.

"I…I think it's more to keep other pokémon out," Redclaw stammered, "There's many other pokémon here, though I think they bring the larger or wilder pokémon to these areas outside. Just be glad they didn't keep you in that building-it's kind of frightening, there's strange smells and _lots_ of injured pokémon. I wonder what's happened to all of them…I think…I think they put us out here because there were too many pokémon in there already, or maybe it's because they thought we'd be more comfortable outside, and the barred gates might be to keep us from running off into the wild before our wounds have healed…"

"But why didn't they give us a choice?" Thunder growled, "I'm not dependent on humans, and if they're going to force me to stay here I won't believe they're trying to help. And by the way, what do you think they're going to do with us once we've recovered enough, huh?"

Redclaw stiffened, and Thunder could tell he was uncertain, but he replied, "There's nothing we can do now. I suppose we should wait until we're stronger and then we can find a way to-"

"I feel stronger already," Thunder remarked, knowing that, if anything, the humans had treated her wounds-not even the bullet wounds hurt as much anymore, "I'm ready to leave. Now. I won't stick around to find out what these humans have in store for us. I say we find a way out and-and…where the heck is Stormblade?"

"Stormblade?" Redclaw repeated, puzzled, before realizing who Thunder meant, "The other scyther? He's one of the ones they kept inside…he was one of the worst injured of all the other pokémon I saw…and there were many with really horrific injuries…"

"Well that's just great!" Thunder muttered sarcastically, looking down at where the end of the gate bars were stuck into the ground. "Redclaw!" she said suddenly, looking up, "Do you think you could dig underneath the bars?"

"Well…" Redclaw began hesitantly, "They must have made it so that pokémon can't dig under them…I mean…"

"Just try!" Thunder told him, "I can't dig well, and if you can dig an opening big enough for me to fit through, you could dig another way out of your cage and we can both get out."

Redclaw said nothing and only nodded, starting to scrape his claws against the damp earth, and surprisingly quickly, he had dug deep enough to see the end of the bars. "I can dig under them," he told her, "They don't go very far underground, but they're really sharp at the ends." Careful to avoid the pointed ends of the metal bars, Redclaw swiftly scraped out more earth, soon creating a large pile of dirt behind him. Thunder stood by and waited, though she could see that Redclaw was quickly tiring. He was still weak, she realized, from the electric shock.

After a minute of digging deeper, Redclaw realized the earth had become much harder to dig through, and more rocky. Thunder tried to help dig from the other side, and eventually they made a hole to crawl through, though it was very shallow, thanks to the fact that it was very tiring and difficult to dig any deeper. "Are you sure it's big enough?" Redclaw asked her uncertainly.

"It's fine!" Thunder replied, annoyed, and began to crawl through the small opening. Redclaw knew that it wasn't big enough for any scyther who wasn't as thin as Thunder to fit through, but despite the fact that the sharp ends of the metal bars made long cuts across her back, Thunder managed to make it through and into Redclaw's enclosure rather quickly. "Come on," she muttered, ignoring the cuts, "Let's find a way out of here…"

"Wait…" Redclaw told her, still sounding a bit uncertain about all this, "I think we should wait a little while first. I'm far too tired to dig any more right now, but we'll both be stronger if we rest for a little bit. I don't think we'll have any trouble from the humans for a while; they're all too busy inside the building, and it will be easier to get away from here during the night. They left food and water here, so I don't think they're planning on coming back soon."

Thunder looked about ready to argue, but simply muttered, "Fine…" and turned away. She didn't seem at all pleased with the idea, and Redclaw noticed her staring through the bars, yet not at the other outdoor pokémon enclosures, but beyond them. He was quite clear about how she felt about being trapped in this place, though he couldn't help but wonder if she was really mistaken.

* * *

Both Justin and Katie had been shocked to discover the amount of injured pokémon who'd been taken to the Pokémon Center. Katie's pokémon couldn't even be checked on, as everyone working there was far too busy caring for pokémon with worse injuries. Katie was a bit confused as to why so many pokémon had gotten injured, though she knew that some of them had been caught in traps meant for bigger pokémon; she'd seen someone bringing in a poochyena that had gotten its leg severed by one such trap. She shuddered as she walked away from the Pokémon Center with her shinx and Justin walking beside her.

Justin had returned, and had gone to the pokémon center to wait for her to bring her pokémon there. Luckily, he had been right, and Katie had gone to the Pokémon Center, bringing three injured pokémon with her with the help of Nurse Joy and a pokémon ranger. When asked, she had said that the three were wild; not mentioning that one of the scyther had once belonged to Justin. Katie had not said anything to Justin about what had happened the previous night when they'd found the hurt scyther, and he was very glad of it.

Katie had grown a bit tired of Justin constantly pestering her to search after the white growlithe again, no matter how many times she told him that it would be nearly impossible for any of their pokémon to track it. However, she had eventually relented, and thought that maybe her shinx would be able to find a clue as to where the growlithe had gone. It seemed pointless, but she figured it was worth a try, and the best place to start would be the rocks in the forest where she'd found Justin's scyther. She couldn't think of a better place to look, and the rocky area had been where their earlier searches had taken them. Sighing as Justin suddenly raced ahead, she ran after him toward the outskirts of the city, her shinx following closely behind.

* * *

Snowcrystal and Spark were exhausted; Wildflame had insisted they travel as quickly as possible, and even though Snowcrystal was used to running long distances, she felt weak and tired now. At last, however, they stopped to take a break. During this time, no one said a word. Snowcrystal was still too shocked, but yet at the same time she realized that Wildflame was right about needing to keep moving on.

After the little break, that was all too short, Wildflame told the others that it was time to move again, and they carried on.

"Will ya slow down?" Spark grumbled after a short while, far behind the other two, "I can't run for THIS long! I…hey wait! What's that?"

Snowcrystal and Wildflame stopped. Spark was sniffing the air, and Snowcrystal did as well, soon noticing an enticing scent. "There's food nearby!" Spark shouted to the others as he ran off through the bushes. Snowcrystal watched him in confusion.

Then a thought struck her. "Spark! Wait, don't-"

Her words were cut off by a scream.


	22. Danger Arises

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 22-Danger Arises**

Snowcrystal jumped in surprise as Spark's scream reached her ears. She and Wildflame darted forward; Wildflame leaping over the bushes and Snowcrystal crawling through them. They found Spark lying dazed near the base of a thick oak tree, his left leg clamped in the jaws of a metal trap.

Snowcrystal walked forward, sniffing the trap, and Wildflame pushed her aside. "Let me look at it," she muttered to Snowcrystal, who backed away, looking at Spark, who was lying motionless, still dazed. Carefully looking the trap over, Wildflame sighed. "It'll be hard to get it open…if only Stormblade were here…he could probably pry it open…" Sighing to herself, she tried to think of the best way they could open the trap. Noticing that because of Spark's paw being caught between the 'teeth' of the trap, it was open slightly, enough for Wildflame to carefully squeeze her paw in.

Spark looked up, giving Wildflame a frightened look, as he muttered, "Don't…you'll only make it worse…"

"You want me to leave you here?" Wildflame muttered, pulling her paw out of the trap, "Look, at least the trap is a small one…your paw isn't broken. All we need to do is get it open a little bit, and you can pull your leg out."

"Oh yeah?" Spark muttered, his voice sounding strained although his usual attitude seemed to have returned, "Sounds real simple doesn't it? And just how do you plan on doing that? You put your paw in there and try to pull it open and you'll only get your paw all cut up!" He glanced down at his trapped leg, giving it a sharp tug.

"Stop that!" Snowcrystal hissed at him, agitated, "You'll make it worse! Hold still…I'll try and find something we could use that might open it at least a bit wider…" Her voice trailed off as she turned around to search, eyes scanning the rocky ground. All she saw were rocks, sticks, a couple flimsy broken tree branches, mud, and…_rocks_… "Wait!" she cried, turning to Spark who seemed ready to just simply try and pull his leg free again, "I think I have an idea!"

Spark watched as Snowcrystal searched around a bit before walking back to him with a long, thin, and almost pointed rock. Snowcrystal set it beside the trap and nudged it inside as far as it would go until it got stuck. She then placed her paws on the other end of the pointed rock and pushed downward.

Nothing happened. "This isn't working!" Spark muttered through clenched teeth, "And you two better think of something that _will_ work quick, because this HURTS!"

"We're not idiots," Wildflame replied icily, "We can figure out that it hurts by ourselves." Spark merely scowled in response. Ignoring him, she walked toward Snowcrystal, who was still trying to use the sharp rock to lever the trap open. "Let me do it," she told the growlithe, nudging her aside, "Spark, the moment you feel the trap open a little, pull your leg out-as quick as you can, all right?" Spark nodded, and Wildflame paused a moment before pushing down on the pointed end of the rock with both forepaws.

Spark felt the metal teeth of the trap pull out of his leg slightly, and ignoring the pain, he pulled his leg away as hard as he could, feeling the trap's steel draws scrape through his fur and into his flesh as he did so. However, he'd done it fast enough, and he half collapsed on his side, his leg a bloody mess, but free of the trap.

"There," Wildflame stated calmly, "Problem solved."

"Problem solved?" Spark cried, looking down at his injured leg, "You call _this_ solved?" The jolteon staggered to his feet, keeping his bleeding leg held above the ground. "Look! I'm injured! Who knows how long it'll take to heal…and how do you expect me to travel all day like this? And it hurts even worse than the burns from those stupid houndour!"

"Quit making a big deal about it," Wildflame snapped, "The trap wasn't very strong. Your leg's only badly cut up. You can still walk."

Spark's eyes narrowed and he gave Wildflame a seething look but made no reply.

"Look, Spark," Snowcrystal began, hoping to calm the tension between the two pokémon, "I can see a small forest not far from here. We can rest there and maybe Wildflame can try to hunt, plus there might be some berries there we can eat if there's nothing else."

Spark merely nodded sullenly, and the three set off, Spark occasionally complaining about the traps and his wound. The sky was beginning to darken by the time they reached the forest.

Stopping to rest in the shelter of the leafy trees, the trio by now felt too exhausted to search for food, and surprisingly, none of them were particularly hungry. Instead, they had stopped to drink from a small stream and then settled down to rest; making small nests from moss in the undergrowth.

Snowcrystal was asleep almost instantly; all that traveling having taken a toll on her small body. Spark was kept awake a little longer by the stinging pain in his leg, but despite that, the jolteon was soon asleep as well. Wildflame stayed awake longer, several conflicting thoughts clouding her confused mind.

To her annoyance, she had found herself worrying over Stormblade and Thunder, and Rosie too, wondering where they were, when she had far more important things to think about. Her main concern was finding Articuno; she didn't have time to worry over Snowcrystal's friends. After all, they weren't really _her_ friends…were they?

Sighing, she laid her head against her paw, the faintest traces of doubt that her plan could have any success nagging at her mind. Her main concern should be helping the other houndour and houndoom…those at her homeland…but did she even want to go back? Thinking of what things had been like, she wasn't quite sure anymore…but did she really want to be here? With _them_? She wasn't sure about that either, and it bothered her. Why should she want to travel around the wilderness, facing humans and whatever other danger happened to come upon them, having to see pokémon with horrific injuries and not being able to do anything about it…? But yet…serving under Firedash, even with a reward if she somehow managed to find Articuno, didn't seem pleasant either. For once, Wildflame was in doubt.

But it didn't last long. Pushing her conflicting thoughts away, Wildflame settled on the fact that her life with her clan back by the mountains would be far better than it ever was before, once she returned. She would make sure to succeed, make sure that life would be better…for all her clan. And she'd never have to worry about these other pokémon ever again…

And with those thoughts, Wildflame soon lulled herself into sleep…

* * *

Blazefang wasn't far off. In fact, he and the rest of the pack were quite close to where the others were resting, but unaware of it. The houndour was in a dark mood.

The journey had been slow, and one houndour had been caught in a trap, and it had taken a long while to get him free. Blazefang had been angry about the entire thing afterward and as soon as they had stopped to rest, the other houndour had given him a wide berth.

Blazefang sat moodily on top of an old tree stump, his claws digging into the rotting wood. Angrily he tore a large chunk from it, swatting it with his paw into the undergrowth below. Leaping down from the stump, he started to head deeper into the trees…when he heard a voice.

"Leave…!"

The hairs on Blazefang's neck stood up straight, and he turned at the sound of a large pokémon crashing through the bushes, and in no more than a few seconds later, a grizzled old ursaring stood before him. The larger pokémon's eyes bored into Blazefang's, and the houndour, feeling intimidated, stepped back.

"You…" the ursaring muttered in a low growl, pointing a shaky claw in the direction of where the pack was resting, "You and those others…leave. This part of the forest belongs to us. We don't allow other predators here."

Blazefang didn't answer, but paused to look the ursaring over. The bear-like pokémon's fur was matted and dirty, as if the pokémon hadn't bothered to take care of it. The fur around his muzzle was tinged with silver, and he looked shaky and feeble. He was also very thin, and Blazefang suspected that the ursaring had frequently had to deal with competition from other predators, and thus, he and whoever else was a part of his group had probably lost a lot of their territory. The old ursaring was obviously going through rough times.

Blazefang smiled. He didn't seem like much of a threat. "Don't worry," he muttered, "We aren't stayin' here. We're just resting. We'll be gone well before sunrise. So leave us alone until then, and we can all get on with our lives!"

The ursaring bared his teeth in a snarl. "No," he growled, "There are plenty of other resting places. As long as you and those others are here, you endanger my family!"

Blazefang felt his temper rising. "We're not here to harm anyone but prey!" he spat, "We-"

Before he could speak further, the ursaring had latched his claws around Blazefang's throat and lifted him clear off the ground with a forced that greatly surprised the houndour leader. A moment before, the ursaring had looked weak and feeble.

Blazefang gasped and sputtered as the ursaring brought him close to his face, his claws closing around Blazefang's windpipe, leaving him struggling for breath and unable to focus on creating any fire attacks. "Lissen…" the bear pokémon hissed, "You take what little prey we have…you threaten my family! Now either you leave…or I'll drag you and every other houndour here out of the forest myself!"

The ursaring released Blazefang suddenly, who lay coughing on the ground, gazing up at the larger pokémon in cold fury.

He felt…angry…far more angry than he thought he should feel, considering the ursaring's poor condition, and the obvious predicament he was facing. Yet, that seemed to matter less and less the more that anger grew. Baring his fangs, he snarled back at the ursaring's face, "Make me!"

A look of fear and disbelief crossed the old ursaring's face as he realized he'd have to put up a fight. Yet he had done this many times before. With a roar he charged at Blazefang with a speed that surprised the houndour, slicing his claws across Blazefang's flank and knocking him to the ground.

That was it.

Without thought, without contemplation, Blazefang rose as if he hadn't even felt the pain. He opened his mouth, and saw, without thinking, his vision fading into a blinding yellow and white, and then white flames erupting from his jaws.

The ursaring's scream of agony barely registered to him; he barely saw the old pokémon flailing in anguish as the bright flames surrounded him in a small, fiery tornado. He didn't care, he didn't think, he just saw.

And then the brightness faded, and Blazefang's senses returned. He looked forward, and gave a startled cry of shock. The ursaring was dead. The smell of burning flesh was overpowering, and Blazefang felt himself choke.

He had killed a pokémon…and not for prey. _It felt so wrong…_

He averted his head from the grisly sight of the ursaring's charred remains, horrified. A memory of one of Wildflame's meetings passed through his mind. While telling him about the growlithe and the other pokémon accompanying her, she'd told him what one of them had said about the 'Forbidden Attacks'. Blazefang remembered it too well, and he became even more horrified. Why had he used that attack? And how come it seemed…so beyond his control? And slightly…more powerful?

Shuddering, Blazefang forced himself to look back at the ursaring, but immediately had to turn away again. He was shaking uncontrollably, still in shock from what happened.

"_What have I done…?"_

He looked up again, averting his eyes from the dead ursaring, as he glanced at all the burned foliage. So much of it was burned to nothing, and other trees and plants had started to burn, small white flames with bluish-black streaks flickering over their branches and leaves.

Blazefang stared at the scene in a trance.

Then the sudden realization of what he'd done hit him like a freight train. Whirling around, he suddenly darted back toward the pack, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"GET OUT! EVERYONE OUT!"

A frantic energy seemed to pulse through him, giving him seemingly boundless energy as he bolted toward the pack. He'd felt this energy before, several times, but this time he didn't like it. It hurt. It throbbed through his veins, making him almost wince with every step. It was odd...it didn't really hurt physically, but the feeling...he couldn't stand it. It felt dark and foreboding, and although it made his frantic dash swifter, he felt as if he had to fight against it to move in that particular direction.

It wasn't long before he spotted the pack. "GET OUT OF THE FOREST!" he yelled, looking frantic and wide-eyed as he skidded to a halt in front of them, "GET EVERYONE OUT…NOW!"

"What?" one of the houndour asked, "I thought we were here to rest-"

"GET OUT!" Blazefang cried, his voice rising to a fearful howl, "GET OUT OF THE FOREST YOU IDIOTS! UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE!"

Startled, all the houndour stood up and started to back away. One of them still looked hesitant. "But what's-"

"OUT! GO THAT WAY! NOW! JUST GET OUT!" Blazefang started to race ahead, and the others, though confused, had no choice but to follow. Blazefang was moving so fast, they had to struggle to keep up, knowing that they would not get any answers until they were out of the forest. Luckily, they didn't have too far to run.

In a deeper part of the forest, unaware of the commotion, Snowcrystal, Spark, and Wildflame slept soundly…

…as the fire burned.

* * *

Stormblade opened his eyes, finding his surroundings new and unfamiliar. Because there was currently no light in the room, it took him quite a few moments to realize that he was inside a pokémon center, but in a very unfamiliar pokémon center. He tried to lift his head, but the movement only sent pain shooting down his neck and the wounds in his back. He lay still again, the memories of the past events, and the battle, slowly coming back to him. In a panic he wondered just how much damage Volco's attacks had caused him. At the moment, however, he had no way of knowing. He couldn't see much of the room, which surprised him, as he could usually see well in the dark, but he could tell that he was lying on some blankets on one of the beds he'd seen so often used in pokémon centers he'd been to in the past. He could still feel quite a lot of pain, but nothing close to what he'd been enduring before, and if he lay still, it was at least tolerable.

Gradually through the gloom, he could see the faint shapes of other pokémon, though they weren't very close to him and he couldn't really tell what species they were. As he tried to make sense of how he had gotten here, he vaguely wondered if the humans' medicine could heal a wound from a Forbidden Attack, and whether what Spark had said had been a lie or simply just a myth. But remembering Blazefang's attack, how completely unnatural it was, he found it hard to believe that what he'd heard from the others over the past few days had been lies.

After a moment, another thought came to him. If he was here…where was Thunder? Suddenly alarmed, he lifted his head, slower and more carefully this time, so he had a better view of his surroundings. He couldn't identify Thunder's scent, or the scents of the other pokémon for that matter; there were too many strange and confusing scents in the place and he still felt dazed and only half-awake.

As he turned his head toward the side, he noticed that a bowl of water had been placed on the bed right beside him. Ignoring it, he tried to push himself up to stand, but found it harder and more painful than he had imagined, and only managed to stand very awkwardly on all fours before he collapsed from exhaustion.

He heard someone moving in another part of the room, and realized it must be one of the nurses' pokémon.

"I…I need to find out where my friend is," Stormblade called, surprised by how weak and frail his own voice sounded. The pokémon didn't respond, and he lay his head down, realizing that whoever it was, they had already left … Dazed, he tried to ignore the pain that raced up his leg like fire; standing on it hadn't been the best of his ideas, as he thought to himself that Thunder would be all right; if he was here, she had to be here too…right?

At the sound of approaching human footsteps, Stormblade fell completely still; for some reason he himself was unsure of, he didn't want the humans to know he was awake. As they came closer, he opened his eyes slightly, and noticed one of the humans who worked at the pokémon center, and a pokémon ranger, who was carrying an injured poochyena.

"Right here?" the ranger asked, as she walked out of Stormblade's line of sight and to what had to be another bed.

"Yes," Nurse Joy responded, and Stormblade heard the poochyena whimper as it was set down.

"Was this one wild or trainer owned?" the ranger asked.

"Wild," Nurse Joy replied, "A lot of them were."

"What about the three we brought here this morning?" asked the ranger, and Stormblade held still, listening. _One of those 'three' could be Thunder._

"Well," began Nurse Joy, "The arcanine is recovering, but he still has some serious wounds that have been untreated for a long time. The female scyther seems a lot stronger, but we haven't been able to get near her since she woke up. I suppose in the morning we may have to tranquilize her again. As for the male scyther…well I honestly don't know what to think."

Stormblade relaxed a bit; Thunder was here, and doing better from what the human said. The scyther felt relieved at that statement, and though he knew he should really be worried about Thunder and the arcanine, he couldn't help being afraid for himself. What did that human mean? _Didn't know what to think…_

Stormblade heard the pokémon ranger sigh and move across the room, Nurse Joy following. "Well, I just wish I knew what caused it," she whispered, "That'd probably be at least a bit helpful. It had to be a trainer's pokémon; there aren't any wild fire types anywhere near this area strong enough to do that much damage…and the scyther couldn't have gotten far in that condition…"

Their voices faded, and Stormblade realized that they had left the room. Out of curiosity he lifted his head and tried to peer towards where they had left, but immediately regretted it as pain flared up his back and neck again. Letting out a faint groan, he lay back down.

Outside of the room, Nurse Joy and the pokémon ranger were still talking. "I don't think one of the poachers injured the scyther," the ranger was saying, "Or at least didn't give it those burns. From what you told me it seems like the scyther had been injured like that for days."

"His trainer could have wanted to abandon him," Joy replied, "And maybe those wounds happened in a battle."

"If so," the ranger replied, "Whoever owned the pokémon that used the attack was breaking the law. That's taking a battle _way_ too far."

Nurse Joy nodded sadly, and peered into another room, where many injured or sick pokémon were also resting. "I always try my best to help pokémon in need," she mused quietly, "And I know my assistants do as well. But I've never had to treat so many…and several have been lost already, and the male scyther will probably end up having to be put to sleep…"

The ranger sighed. "Well, I'll make sure I do everything I can to prevent things like this from happening again. And one way to do that…is to put a stop to those poachers, and I will do my best to help make sure that they are stopped."

* * *

Night had fallen upon the Stonedust city pokémon center. Thunder and Redclaw had rested throughout the rest of the day, wary of the humans who passed by the enclosures frequently to tend to the pokémon. However, thanks to Thunder, no one had dared to venture near her enclosure, so the freshly dug hole beneath the gate where the enclosure bordered with Redclaw's had gone unnoticed.

Both Thunder and Redclaw had eaten all of their food, and now that darkness had fallen and the humans wouldn't be coming back for quite a while, Thunder was eager to leave.

Redclaw motioned toward a new hole he had dug beneath the gate, one that led into an open enclosure which currently had a few ponyta and tauros resting inside it. "It'll be easy to get out from there," Redclaw muttered quietly, sounding worried, and as Thunder could also tell, not too enthused about the escape plan.

Thunder approached the hole, muttering to Redclaw, not for the first time, about it being too small for him. "I'll be fine," was all Redclaw said. With a sigh Thunder walked forward, and Redclaw noticed her limping; and found himself staring at the nasty burn across her leg that Volco had inflicted. He could also see that her wing was still in bad condition; she'd have a hard time clearing the fence once she made it into the ponyta's enclosure. She was in very bad shape, obviously, but Redclaw knew her enough to know not to say anything to her on the matter. Thunder didn't like others to think of her as weak or in need of help, it seemed. He shifted uncomfortably, pausing to lick a bandaged paw, as Thunder made it through the hole he'd dug and into the open area of the next pokémon enclosure.

"Well…" Thunder began icily, startling the arcanine for a moment, "Aren't you going to dig the hole…bigger?"

"I…" Redclaw began uncertainly, unsure of how she would take what he was about to say, "I'm not coming. I'm going to stay…to stay here."

"And be a slave to the humans?" Thunder scoffed, not seeming surprised in the least. Redclaw knew she must have been suspecting this by the way he was acting, but she hadn't said anything on the matter until now. "Look," the scyther continued, "I know they gave us food but they still imprisoned us. Obviously they don't want us to leave but are still just trying to gain our trust…nothing more."

"I…I think they're going to let us go once we're healed," Redclaw replied, "Trainers bring their pokémon here so obviously _they_ trust the other humans…"

"But we _aren't_ trainer pokémon!" Thunder growled, "We belong to no one, so to them we're free for the taking! And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a slave!"

Redclaw sighed; he had expected Thunder to react this way, but even just looking at her wounds made him even more determined to convince her to stay. "Look, Thunder," he told her, looking her in the eyes, "I know why you feel this way…you've been Master's pokémon you're whole life, or as long as you can remember, but I haven't, and I have seen that humans _can_ help poké-"

"Sure!" Thunder retorted, her voice almost raising to a shout, "When it's convenient for them, right? When they have something to gain. Don't you see? These humans are taking advantage of our weakness to gain our trust but they aren't letting us leave! Look at the bars of these gates! Does that not mean _anything_ to you? Do you just suppose these humans are all on our side and want nothing more than to help when they've tried to rob us of our _freedom_? THINK, Redclaw! These humans are up to no good and it seems like I'm the only one who notices! Am I the only one who notices these bars, and that they've got Stormblade locked up inside?"

Redclaw looked shocked. "Thunder, Stormblade's-"

"Listen!" Thunder shouted, and Redclaw was shocked that none of the pokémon near their enclosures woke up, "What reason would a human have to go out of their way to help us? They want fighters! Pokémon to battle for them, and they want healthy ones! Why else would they run a place like this?"

"But Thunder, we don't really know-"

"Forget it," Thunder snapped, "If you want to stay here and be their prisoner, then fine. Don't say I didn't warn you. As for me, I'm getting out while I can!" She turned abruptly away, walking further into the small field of the ponyta's enclosure.

"Wait!" Redclaw shouted, and to his surprise, Thunder stopped. "You shouldn't…" he began, but once again, Thunder cut him off.

"All right listen," she told him, ignoring what he had just said, "Where was Stormblade? If I can, I'm going to try to get him out too-"

"Don't," Redclaw said with a sigh, "Stormblade wouldn't last another day out there. At least here…he still has a chance."

Thunder paused for a moment, calming down a little and realizing that what Redclaw said was right. "Ok…" she replied, "I guess you're right…Stormblade was injured by a Forbidden Attack…he has no future out in the wild or…or any future at all, actually."

"Injured by what?" Redclaw replied, confused.

"A Forbidden Attack," Thunder responded, "Some sort of super powered attack or curse or something, that inflicts wounds that won't heal. Unless of course, the jolteon was making the whole thing up…" Redclaw looked confused and Thunder began to turn away. "Look, not that talking with you about pointless arguments hasn't been _fun_, but someone's going to wake up or the humans are going to hear. So I should get going. But remember, you still have your chance to escape…and if I were you, I'd use it!"

She started to walk away from Redclaw for a moment, then stopped. A look of surprise and anger crossed her face and she ducked back into the shadows by the barred gate. "Look," she hissed in anger, "The humans heard us!"

"What?" Redclaw replied, peering through the gate as Thunder pointed out a dark figure strolling by one side of the fence that made up the ponyta's enclosure.

"Well at least he's not coming this way…" Thunder continued, watching the human head toward the pokémon center, "False alarm I guess…" She stood up straighter, as Redclaw's ears suddenly perked up and he stiffened.

"Wait…" he murmured, "Something's not right."

The tone of his voice made Thunder pause; she couldn't tell what was troubling him, but a look that was almost fear had crossed his face. "_What?_" she asked, sounding annoyed.

"I…I don't know," Redclaw admitted, "But look…that human's going into the building but not from the main doors…"

"So?" Thunder asked, watching as another human stepped out of a much smaller door in the building's side and told the other human something before running off towards one of the pokémon enclosures. "Let the humans do what they want…I'm getting out of here!" She walked out of the shadowed area and into the moonlight, heading for the far fence. Redclaw could tell her limp was getting worse.

For a moment Redclaw felt torn; he did not want Thunder to go off on her own-she would starve! And if he couldn't convince her to stay, what good was he to her here? He struggled with his thoughts for a moment, then a final decision reached his mind.

"_WAIT!_" he called to Thunder, as quietly as he could without making too much noise, "I'm coming!" Thunder stopped and turned, and Redclaw frantically widened the hole beneath the gate, until he could squeeze under it. Being very careful to avoid the sharp ends of the bars as much as he could, Redclaw tried not to get dirt in his bandages, unlike Thunder who had torn hers off the moment she'd noticed them, he was quite determined to keep his on. Redclaw wasn't interested in getting an infection. Once on the other side, he stood up and limped toward Thunder, gritting his teeth against the pain the new stinging cuts across his back caused.

Redclaw opened his mouth to say something to Thunder, but a new sound distracted him. Whirling around, he watched a struggling ponyta break free from a bright red beam coming from a red and white sphere that lay open on the ground. A moment later it was hit by another, and this time it didn't break free. The other pokémon nearby had already woken up, but Redclaw and Thunder hadn't been noticed.

"Glad you decided to come with me?" Thunder asked from up ahead, not seeming at all concerned about the ponyta's plight. However she looked wary and alert, waiting for Redclaw to catch up so they could make their escape.

Redclaw didn't reply but merely hurried to catch up, turning his head in alarm as for some strange reason, a fleeing ponyta stopped running. A second later he realized he'd stopped a moment too long. A strange, glowing energy surrounded his body and began lifting him into the air. Redclaw tried to struggle but found he was frozen in place, suspended eerily over the grassy field. Only his eyes moved, and they darted back and forth over the field as Redclaw frantically looked around in terror and confusion.

Redclaw could then see the strange humans…the ones that didn't belong here, standing alongside psychic pokémon of various types. Off in the distance, from what sounded like somewhere on the other side of the pokémon center, some type of battle had broken out, and he could hear a few humans shouting. He wondered why none of the good humans were stopping these other ones, or if they were trying wherever that battle was taking place, why they couldn't win. Then he realized…a lot of the humans like the ones who had helped him, would be in the forest, helping other victims of the poachers.

Thunder had seen the humans and psychic pokémon as well. She turned and ran toward the nearest human, who had a lithe espeon sitting by his side. As the espeon was concentrating on holding Redclaw and one of the ponyta still, he did not see the scyther coming until the last instant.

Turning his head toward Thunder, the psychic pokémon's concentration was lost, and Redclaw and the ponyta fell to the ground. In the same instant, an almost transparent barrier of psychic energy materialized in front of the espeon; Thunder's scythes hacking at it instead.

Quickly realizing what had happened, Thunder wasted no time in sidestepping the barrier and running toward the espeon from the side. The espeon skillfully leaped out of the way, but a moment too late, and Thunder's scythe slashed a deep gash in his back. Espeon landed on all fours, hearing his trainer back away and shout a command. Espeon's head turned towards Thunder as his eyes began to glow. A strange bluish glow just like the glow that had surrounded Redclaw appeared around Thunder. However, this time, Espeon's concentration was broken by the pain searing across his back, and Thunder managed to break free.

Redclaw, meanwhile, was still recovering from the effects of the psychic's attack, struggling to stand as he willed his trembling paws to move. He could hear the fight that had broken out between Thunder and Espeon and wanted to help, yet he felt so weak…

Espeon growled as his eyes began to glow again, summoning yet another psychic attack. Once again the glow surrounded the scyther, but Espeon, knowing he couldn't keep it up for more than a few seconds, jerked his head to the side, and in the same movement, the psychic energy forcefully shoved Thunder against the nearest object-a rather large tree.

Thunder's eyes widened as she felt her outstretched scythe forcefully pushed deep into the tree's trunk, with so much force that her entire scythe and arm, up to her shoulder, were embedded into it. She could feel dozens of sharp pieces of splintered wood being forced into her open wounds. Enraged, she began trying to tug her arm free, while fiercely hacking at the side of the tree with her other blade. Espeon wasted no time in attacking the struggling pokémon, and ran towards her, his tail glowing bright silver.

Thunder managed to free herself just as Espeon was in range of attack, and leapt forward to slash the psychic pokémon with her blades, but at the same time Espeon dodged and attacked. Espeon's attack hadn't been aimed well, and the iron tail struck the scyther in the leg. However, it struck a particularly nasty wound from the fight with Volco…hard. The attack created a deep gash in the scyther's already damaged leg, reopening the old wound and at the same time, creating a much deeper one. Blood leaked onto the grass. Thunder dropped into a crouching position involuntarily, and it was at that moment that Redclaw recovered enough to start running towards her.

Standing up, Thunder stared the arcanine in the eyes. "Redclaw, run!" she yelled, watching the angry espeon carefully and not noticing the psychic pokémon's trainer reaching for a pokéball. Just as the human lifted his arm to throw, Redclaw came racing toward the espeon.

Startled, the trainer tossed the pokéball at the snarling arcanine and before he reached Espeon, Redclaw vanished inside in a beam of red light. The pokéball dropped to the ground and twitched a few times before finally becoming still. Thunder stared in horror; whatever kind of pokéball it was, it must have been a powerful one, to capture Redclaw so quickly, injured or not. Seeing Espeon standing in front of his trainer, Thunder ran towards him, striking him three times in quick succession across his shoulders and chest. Bleeding, the espeon collapsed from the pain, but still looked up at Thunder long enough to create an orb of dark energy in front of his open mouth-shadow ball.

The orb hurtled toward Thunder, creating a small explosion that knocked her off her feet. Feeling weakened and drained of energy, she staggered upright, facing the espeon and his trainer again, and ignoring the sound of chaos from other areas nearby where small fights and struggles had broken out. Running past the weakened espeon, Thunder headed straight for the human who now had Redclaw's pokéball in his hand…

At that moment, another of the humans who'd heard the struggle came to the espeon trainer's aid. "Get away from him!" he shouted, lifting his gun and firing. Thunder saw and ducked, feeling the bullet zip past her wing. Knowing there was no other option, she turned and fled, running toward the fence that bordered the enclosure. The human fired the gun twice more. Thunder didn't slow her pace; the bullets had missed. Leaping clear over the fence, she headed away from the pokémon center and into the outskirts of the city. The human made as if to follow, but the espeon's trainer stopped him.

"Leave it," he muttered, "Let's work on getting the rest of them." He then walked toward his fallen espeon.

* * *

As soon as she was out of sight of the pokémon center, Thunder collapsed in an alleyway. Breathing heavily, she lay still for a few minutes, unable to force her exhausted muscles to move. Her wounds were on fire with pain, and she felt too weak to get up.

But she wasn't willing to stop until she was out of the city. Struggling upright, Thunder took one step forward before collapsing again, more from pain this time than exhaustion. Reluctantly, she came to realize that Redclaw had been right. Now, she'd only managed to make her wounds worse, and she hadn't been able to rescue Redclaw…

Thunder could feel her senses beginning to fade-the pain was becoming too great; she was loosing consciousness. Struggling to fight it for a few moments, Thunder soon realized it was no use, and she slipped into unconsciousness. She was too weak, and was now forced to lie alone in an alleyway in the midst of a human city.

* * *

Back at the pokémon center, Solus was seething. Some makeshift bandages made from strips of clothing had been wound around the espeon's shoulders and middle. As he sat obediently by his trainer, he didn't even look up as the other trainers helping his own returned from the pokémon center, many carrying pokéballs-some belonging to trainers that had been stored in the pokémon center, others they caught themselves.

The eevee evolution was glad his psychic abilities were able to block some of the pain from his wounds, though that took effort. He found it even harder to focus, remembering the shameful event that had just taken place all too well.

He…a strong eevee evolution, a cunning fighter …beaten by an injured, half-starved _scyther_! The stupid pokemon hadn't deserved to win. If he hadn't been distracted…if he had been ready, he would have made her wish she'd never been born.

Trying to distract himself from his thoughts, Solus lifted his head and watched the trainers, the members of Team Rocket. They were safe for now. Most of the humans his trainer called "Police" had left the city, trying to catch poachers. The ones that had come here had been dealt with already.

Solus looked up as another trainer approached his own, followed by a younger, not yet fully grown, human. "Did you find all the pokémon that could be of use to us?" the espeon's own trainer asked.

The other experienced trainer glanced at the younger one, who nodded. "I caught all the ones inside the Pokémon Center that looked strong enough to battle," the boy stated.

"Good," Solus heard his trainer answer as he turned to look at the older of the two humans, "And the healthy ones?"

"There weren't many," the other trainer replied sheepishly, "I suppose the nurses were too busy helping injured pokémon to check on relatively healthy ones. But I brought the ones that were there." He set down a backpack, which was filled with pokéballs of various kinds. Solus leaned forward to sniff them curiously, wondering what new pokémon he would be fighting alongside of in the future. Around him, several of the other trainers who'd been helping find the pokémon had sent out a few abra, and a few of them had already teleported away from the area alongside one of the abra.

Solus stood beside his trainer, listening to the man speak. "Well, it's not as good as what I was hoping for, but I'm sure we got quite a few decent pokémon. Luckily you didn't seem to have much trouble taking the pokémon, did you?" The other trainer simply smirked and he continued, "Now all that's left to do is make sure we cover up all traces that any of us have ever been here."

"How do we do that?" the younger trainer asked, feeling nervous now that he and the other two were the only ones who hadn't teleported yet. The last abra sat beside Solus, who turned his back to her disdainfully.

"Simple," Solus's trainer replied, returning the psychic eevee evolution, "While you two were in there, others placed explosives in some of the rooms. Oh don't look at me like that!" he added, seeing the boy's shocked face, "The nurses and the ranger all came outside during the commotion. They're well away from the danger. The main building will be the only thing damaged." He lifted up a small device, and the boy noticed the man's finger move over a button. "Stand close to Abra, you two," he ordered, and the two trainers hurried to obey them.

Still, the boy looked worried and shocked. "What about the other pokémon?" he asked, "The ones that were too weak? What will happen to them?"

Solus's trainer shrugged. "It doesn't matter. They're weak…worthless. And for all I care…they can burn and die." He quickly pressed the button.

Abra then teleported the three trainers, as the main building of the Pokémon Center went up in flames.

* * *

Justin and Katie had not gotten very far, but somehow, they had managed to keep out of sight of any dangerous pokémon or poachers and also, unknown to them, the police. It had grown dark, and there had been no sign of the white growlithe. The two had reluctantly headed back to the city.

Upon reaching it, Katie immediately knew something was amiss. Huge columns of smoke were billowing up from somewhere near the center of the city, and though most of it had been obscured by the trees and the dark, cloudy sky before they'd reached the city, the bright lights of the buildings made it very easy to see. Justin and Katie gave each other alarmed looks before racing toward the source of the smoke.

By the time they got close enough, panting and out of breath, they could see that entire sections of the Pokémon Center had collapsed completely, and the flimsy looking remains of what was still left standing were blazing brightly. Several humans, including those who worked at the center, and water pokémon had gathered around the building, trying to put out the fire. However, there was little left of what had once been the main building of the Stonedust City Pokémon Center. Unable to look any longer, Katie turned away.

"Let's get out of here…" the girl whispered to Justin, "I don't want to watch this…"

Justin said nothing, but started to sullenly follow Katie, not knowing what he could say or do to comfort her.

"Those pokémon…" Katie whispered, "All those pokémon that were in there, and the three that I helped…they must all be dead now…there's no way they could have survived if they were in there…there's hardly anything left of the Pokémon Center! They probably weren't able to get out in time…"

Justin nodded his head sadly; he couldn't bear to think of what it would be like if one of his own pokémon had been in there, supposedly safe…only to die. At least from what he'd seen when he saw the building's remains, the people who worked there had somehow gotten out safely, but they must have not had time to rescue all the pokémon. Up ahead, the faint rumble of thunder told Justin that it would probably rain again soon, but he didn't care. He still couldn't believe what had happened to the Pokémon Center…and all the pokémon who had been in it. He knew that now, or soon, several trainers would have to go through the pain…of loosing their faithful companions. Suddenly, Justin felt angry, though at first he was not sure exactly why. He felt his thoughts wandering back toward the three pokémon he had seen Katie help bring into the Pokémon Center. Not looking at Katie, he muttered quietly, "Scyther deserved it."

"What?" Katie replied, turning to look at him.

"He deserved to die," was Justin's only response.

Katie turned away and said nothing.

After a few moments, she stood up again, noticing a few small drops of rain hitting the sidewalk. "Let's go…" she sighed, starting to walk forward. Justin didn't ask where; he wasn't sure Katie even knew. She just wanted to get away from this place, and possibly start to head to another city…maybe one not so isolated as Stonedust was. Maybe one where she could get another badge.

The two said nothing as Justin followed Katie through alleyways and across streets, ignoring the rain that had started to fall down harder. It wasn't until Katie stopped suddenly that he spoke. "What's…"

But Katie didn't give him time to finish. She ran forward, quickly disappearing into another alleyway. Justin followed her quickly and stopped, seeing her standing beside the unconscious form of one of the three pokémon she had helped earlier.

The female scyther.

* * *

Rosie could hear the angry cries of pokémon and humans alike, and all coming closer to the doorway. Trying to peer through the doorway again, the ninetales hoped to catch a glimpse of what was going on.

Before she could even register what was happening, the large form of the granbull guard burst through the doorway and into the room, lifting the limp form of a persian high in the air. With a growl he flung the pokémon to the ground, where it gave a weak cry as it collided with a group of empty cages. Rosie felt her own cage rattle, and she grimaced and looked away, back toward the doorway through which the granbull had come.

Various pokémon, all escapers, were fighting with several other pokémon who were fighting for the humans. After a brief struggle several escapers bolted into the room, the granbull guard soon charging after them. One of them, a nimble glameow, managed to slip away through another door and down a hallway, out of sight of everyone else. Rosie's ears pricked as she strained to get a better look of the hallway, and although she couldn't see much, the scent of fresh air slowly wafting from the hallway told her that the glameow had managed to open a door. _That was a way out…_

Her thoughts were interrupted as her cage was suddenly knocked over by two struggling pokémon; an escaped absol and a grovyle guard. From the looks of it, the guard was winning. The leaf attached to the grovyle's forearm began to lengthen and glow, and with a sudden, fluid motion, he whipped the now blade-like leaf across the absol's face, causing him to scream.

Rosie glanced away as flecks of the absol's blood splattered over the bars of her cage. A second later, and the two pokémon had moved away from her cage in their struggle. Rosie looked up, calling out to anyone who would listen; her voice blending with those of the other still caged and helpless pokémon, "Let me out! Open the cage! How did you all escape?"

She needn't have called for help. Almost as soon as she had shouted, a billowing plume of red-hot flames moved swiftly in her direction from the other side of the room. Ducking instinctively to avoid the blast, Rosie didn't even think to try to convince herself that the flames wouldn't harm her much…

After the blaze passed, Rosie looked up to see that the bars of one end of her cage were twisted and melted. Seizing her opportunity, she painfully squeezed her way through the opening, ignoring the heat of the metal against her cream-colored fur. Once out, she started to make her way towards the hallway she had seen the glameow escape through, when something stopped her.

Nightcloud was laying prone on the ground near the opposite doorway, the granbull standing over her. After a moment the guard turned away and hurried after another escaper. Dodging a few ranged pokémon attacks, Rosie ran to the mightyena's side, noticing her black and gray fur was thickly matted with blood.

"Nightcloud…?" she whispered, fear and worry making her voice sound shaky.

The mightyena looked up, recognition dawning in her eyes. "You got out of your cage…" she whispered happily, "You can run free again now…"

"But Nightcloud, you need to get help! You have to get away from here and quickly!" Rosie was aware of the fighting around her, but only vaguely. As she wasn't trying to escape, none of the guards seemed to care that she was standing there.

"Don't worry," the mightyena replied weakly, "The humans won't let me die. Traitor to them or not I'm still a valuable pokémon in their eyes. Now look," she continued, seeing that Rosie was about to argue, "I can't get rid of my collar, but I can take off yours. You need to get out of here while you still can. The humans and guards are bound to restore order soon."

Before Rosie could reply, Nightcloud sank her teeth into the collar around her neck and began to pull. Rosie gasped as minor shocks flickered over her fur. Nightcloud bit down harder. Rosie felt a large shock surge through her body for a split second, then the collar was gone. The ninetales gasped for breath as Nightcloud flung the collar away. "Go," the mightyena ordered.

Rosie hesitated for a moment, but she knew that to stay here and be recaptured despite Nightcloud's efforts to help her would be foolish. "Th-thank you…" she managed to stammer.

"GO!" Nightcloud yelled, and suddenly realizing the danger she was in as more humans and pokémon entered the room, Rosie made a dash for the hallway.

Suddenly well aware of the battles around her, Rosie barely managed to dodge stray attacks as she turned into the hallway, her claws skidding against the smooth floor. The light through a still-open doorway shone through the corridor, and relief flooded through her as she realized that miraculously, the humans and guards hadn't noticed the open door.

But as she was looking at the door, Rosie had been distracted. Taking the ninetales completely by surprise, the granbull guard leaped toward her, his powerful paws slamming her to the ground.

Rosie's eyes widened in shock as she was forcefully knocked against the ground, her right foreleg crumpling beneath her from the shock of the blow. Rosie then gave a cry of agony as she felt the bone snap. Turning her head, she bared her fangs in an angry snarl and launched an ember attack-right in the granbull's face. Howling in pain, he turned away, allowing Rosie to painfully haul herself upright and limp toward the doorway and to freedom, holding her broken leg above the ground.

Once outside, she broke into a hobbling, stumbling run, gritting her teeth tightly against the pain shooting up her right forelimb, not stopping despite the agony the broken bone was causing her. After what seemed like hours, but really couldn't have been anywhere near that long, Rosie finally allowed herself to stop in the shelter of some bushes and trees.

Laying on her side against the soft grass, Rosie closed her eyes and tried to forget everything that she had seen. There were so many pokémon who, unlike her, hadn't made it to freedom. She spent a few moments in silence, listening. Apart from a few distant bird pokémon, no one was here. She was safe…at least for now. Softly licking her broken leg, Rosie closed her eyes, letting exhaustion overcome her.

_To be continued..._


	23. New Troubles Begin

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 23-New Troubles Begin**

Surprised, Katie walked over to the still form of the unconscious scyther. A quick look determined that the chain around the scyther's arm had been removed, but the collar and shackle still remained. Her wounds didn't look any better, and she had new injuries in addition to the old ones. Katie knelt down beside the pokémon.

Justin backed away, his eyes narrowed at the motionless figure at Katie's feet. This scyther looked smaller than the one he had owned, even if only slightly smaller. It was also much thinner than he knew healthy scyther were supposed to be. That, combined with its injuries and the fact that it was _unconscious_ did not make it a threat, but Justin didn't like the thought of getting closer to it regardless. However…ignoring his fear, he walked over and stood beside Katie.

Stepping up to the scyther's side, he sneered at it, mumbling under his breath, "Stupid thing…probably didn't know how to find food for itself…must have been too busy attacking other pokémon and people and getting into fights, by the look of those scars…" He gave the scyther a sharp kick, but the pokémon didn't stir. He quickly glanced at Katie, but she was looking for her meager supplies from her backpack, too focused with her task to have noticed. Crouching down, Justin peered at the scyther's wounds closely, calling over to Katie, "Forget it, you're not a nurse. Quit trying to act like one. None of your supplies are going to help."

He expected her to yell at him, but to his surprise, she only sighed and stood up. "You're right," she agreed, "Maybe I should go find help…and I'm NOT going to leave her here!" she added, giving Justin a glare.

"Why do you care so much?" Justin scoffed, but Katie was already walking away. Realizing that she probably wanted him to wait here, he sat down, watching the scyther. It still wasn't showing any signs of waking up, and from the looks of it, Justin suspected that it would be unconscious for a while longer. He was about to get up and follow Katie when he noticed something strange. The glint of metal in the dim light reflecting off the scyther's neck caught his eye, and as he peered closer through the gloom, he realized the pokémon was wearing a battered, heavy iron collar.

Curious, Justin ran his finger over the collar, feeling many shallow scrapes and scratches along its surface…that from the looks of it had to come from something thin and sharp, like a scythe. Moving his hand away, he noticed the shackle and remains of a severed chain around the scyther's arm. This too was covered in scratch marks, though some looked like the marks of sharp fangs rather than scythes.

He paused to wonder, had this scyther, time and again, slashed and bit frantically at this shackle and collar, out of sheer desperation, in some vain attempt to get them off? And if so, why had it been so desperate? _Why did he care…?_ That was a better question. Standing up on the dusty concrete, he kicked dirt over the scyther, strangely feeling slightly disappointed that it did not move. He realized then that it wasn't going to move. Not anytime soon. It was out cold, and would be for a while, considering that it hadn't woken up yet. His least favorite pokémon, which had fueled his hate ever since his trainer license was taken away…was simply lying in front of him.

And it was defenseless.

A slow smile crept across Justin's face, one that shocked even him. But what did it matter if he took out his anger on this one? Even if it was awake, it would simply shake off any pain he caused it anyway; scyther were fighters. They were violent pokémon who were used to pain. What did it matter?

Narrowing his eyes at the scyther, he walked toward the side of an old building, picking up a large piece of a dusty, broken brick. He hesitated-would Katie know he had hurt the pokémon? Forcing the thought into the back of his mind, he tried to think of his pokémon, that he had lost along with his chance of competing in a pokémon league, when all the other trainers his age had gotten to continue their journeys…

Another sudden rage took hold of him, and he hurled the brick down at the scyther, feeling strangely disappointed once again when it didn't move. Annoyed, he picked up another brick and got ready to throw, when he hesitated. The emaciated scyther was starting to stir. As it lifted its head, blinking in confusion, Justin panicked. Backing away, he was painfully aware that he was without protection if it attacked-he had no pokémon and Katie was gone. He didn't know whether to run, but somehow the thought of running didn't seem like a good idea. '_Scyther go after the weak, right?'_ he thought to himself frantically, _'I just can't appear weak to it…'_

While the scyther was trying to stand up, Justin threw the other brick, watching it strike the scyther's shoulder and knock it down. Staying put, Justin watched, his fear ebbing away, as he realized the pokémon was probably too hurt to attack him anyway.

He was surprised when the bug pokémon sat bolt upright, its head turned toward him and its eyes fixing him with a piercing glare. Its mouth opened slightly and it muttered a few words under its breath; words that Justin couldn't understand.

"_What's this? A little Master?"_

Justin froze as the scyther stood up, swaying slightly, but standing all the same. Backing up against the wall of the building, he reached down for another brick and threw it. After all, the scyther was injured…bad. What could it do to him?

To Justin's surprise, Thunder calmly stepped aside, dodging the brick and narrowing her eyes. _Yet another human to try and cause her pain._ She walked closer, her eyes focused on the terrified boy, then leaped straight toward him, scythes raised.

_She would show this human a thing or two about pain!_

_

* * *

_Snowcrystal woke up with an odd feeling. Glancing at her two companions, she could tell they were still asleep. Deciding not to wake them, she turned and headed toward a stream that she had scented through the trees. She had not gone far when she sensed something wasn't right. Frightened flocks of bird pokémon soared over the trees, calling warnings to others of their kind who were still asleep in their nests.

Snowcrystal padded toward a small hill that overlooked another part of the forest, wondering if something was wrong. Before she got three paces, she was knocked off her feet by a linoone who was racing the other way. Quickly scrambling to her feet again, she called after him, "What's going on?" However, he was too panicked to answer her.

Before she could try to follow him, several other pokémon raced through the trees, all looking wide-eyed and panicked, and all heading in the same direction. Confused, she turned to the hill and slowly climbed it.

What she saw took her breath away.

The forest below was ablaze, but it was no ordinary forest fire. The flames were bluish-white and streaked with black and violet, and the rate they consumed the trees-burning them into nothing but dark ashes, was startling.

In very little time, that blaze would reach them. Still frozen with shock, Snowcrystal concentrated on the distant flames, watching the white blaze quickly destroying the forest, as weird blue smoke rose high into the air. It was then that she realized…

_Blazefang had used Shadowflare again…_

Tearing her eyes away from the sight, Snowcrystal bolted back toward the others, startling Spark and Wildflame into wakefulness.

"Hurry! Get up!" she cried, fear filling her voice, "We need to get out of here now!"

Seeing Snowcrystal's expression, Wildflame stood up quickly, and Spark, still half asleep, just groaned, "I'm still asleep…wake me up later…"

"Spark!" Snowcrystal shouted, "Blazefang used Shadowflare-and the forest is being burned to the ground!"

At this statement Spark leapt up. "Shadowflare!" he repeated, "Well then…then let's get out of here before we all end up looking like Stormblade!"

Spark limped off, though he hardly seemed to mind the pain now, and Snowcrystal and Wildflame followed closely. By now the blue smoke was visible above the trees. Wildflame noticed it too, not needing to ask Snowcrystal about Blazefang. Still, she was shocked. Hadn't she told him during one of their meetings what Spark had said about the Forbidden Attacks?

As she ran further, Snowcrystal was so focused on getting away from the danger that it took her a moment to realize that they had lost sight of Spark. "Wildflame!" she cried, "Where's Spark?" Somewhere behind her, a tree toppled over, and Snowcrystal could hear fire crackling over it.

"He's somewhere up ahead!" The houndoom replied, "Keep going!"

Still worried, Snowcrystal kept running, when she noticed some of the trees around her had started to catch fire as well. Panic overtook her, and she momentarily forgot about Spark. Blue smoke filled a clearing ahead of her, and she held her breath as she raced across it; there was no telling what that smoke would do to her if she breathed it in.

After she made it through the clearing, Snowcrystal ran frantically, in a daze of fear; dodging blazing bushes and trees as she fought madly to escape the oncoming inferno. Wildflame, who had vanished somewhere up ahead moments before, could not be seen.

"Wildflame!" Snowcrystal called out, but she received no answer. Now truly panicked, Snowcrystal darted to avoid a fallen tree, half burnt through by Shadowflare. Running along a new path, she stopped as she realized with horror that she had reached an area blocked off by large boulders. It was a steep climb to the rest of the forest, and though Snowcrystal was used to climbing rocks, these looked far too steep even for her. Turning around, she noticed flames surrounding her on all sides, and some were moving towards her, burning across the dead leaves and branches, getting ever closer.

Having no other option, she leaped at the nearest boulder, feeling her claws slide down it as she fought for a pawhold. Unable to find one, she slipped and fell to the ground, leaping up again instantly and just barely managing to avoid touching the deadly flames. Scrabbling at the rock's surface, she managed to find a small niche in the stone and placed her back paw inside it, before leaping up towards the top of the boulder.

Snowcrystal's claws scraped against the top of the stone, as she slowly fought her way up its side, straining her muscles and praying that she wouldn't fall. Inch by inch, she scrabbled up the rock's side, until she collapsed, exhausted, on the top of its smooth surface. Wearily, she got up, realizing that since the rocks had slowed her down, she would have to move even faster…

But she didn't get any further. A blazing limb from a nearby tree broke off as the flames burned through it, sending it crashing down against Snowcrystal's back and head, knocking her out instantly. Luckily, the branch rolled away from the growlithe's limp body before the flames could touch her.

Coming into wakefulness ever so slowly, Snowcrystal thought she could hear someone shout, but her senses were too dazed to register if she had been imagining it or not. She could feel unconsciousness fighting to overcome her again, and fearfully tried to raise her head. A large, dark shape came into view, and she blacked out again.

Wildflame was shocked to find Snowcrystal unconscious, but she did not hesitate before picking Snowcrystal up by the scruff and hurrying through the forest, in the direction Spark had gone. However, it was clear that going back for Snowcrystal had been a dangerous choice. Fire blazed all around her, and she had to leap over many flaming patches of grass or moss. She could not tell where Spark was, but she hoped that he, being a jolteon and faster than she or Snowcrystal, had managed to outrun the flames already despite being injured.

Wildflame kept her grip on the unconscious Snowcrystal as she raced past the trees, white flame blazing on all sides. She tried to keep her head low, as the strange blue smoke was floating above her, and if it harmed her in any way, she was afraid it would never heal.

Up ahead, a blazing tree blocked the houndoom's path. Bracing herself for the leap, Wildflame sprang over it, lifting her back paws and tail free of the flames. Landing roughly to the ground, she took off again, feeling hope rise within her as she spotted a clear area up ahead; she could faintly tell it was rocky and the flames had not spread there. _She was almost out…_

As she neared the edge of the forest, she noticed a large clearing in front of her that was completely ablaze. In a panic, she darted in another direction, and seeing a stream up ahead, leaped into it and ran through the shallow water, avoiding falling branches from burning trees.

She dashed through the water until she came near enough to the place where the forest trees ended. Leaping clear of the stream, she raced onward, when something out of the corner of her eye attracted her attention. A huge tree was toppling down toward her, its trunk blazing with blinding white flames. Trying to give herself an extra burst of speed, Wildflame leaped forward, hearing the tree smash to the ground behind her, sending a shower of white hot sparks into the air. Some of them singed her fur slightly, but she hardly cared. Now that she was free of most of the trees, she kept running, heading toward the rocks.

When she reached them and moved away from the burning forest, she knew she was safe, far enough from the flames. Shakily, she set Snowcrystal down before collapsing on the muddy earth. Beside her, Snowcrystal opened her eyes.

"Wildflame…" she whispered quietly, obviously still weak, "You…you saved me…thank you…"

Wildflame smiled at her, and through her fading senses she heard Spark's relieved shout as the jolteon ran over to them. _He had made it out too…_

Smiling again slightly at that last thought, Wildflame lay her head down against the muddied ground, grateful to be alive.

* * *

A shout caused Redclaw to stir as the world slowly spun into view. The arcanine felt smooth metal beneath his paws, and looked around, realizing he was in a large metal cage. He could hear a human a little ways behind him, and a glance to his side told him that if he dared attack, there would be several other humans with tranquilizer guns to stop him. Unsteadily, the dazed arcanine stood up, feeling something brushing against his face. When he reached his paw up to rub against the side of his head, he felt metal.

Alarmed, Redclaw gasped…well, tried to. He soon realized that around his head and snout was some sort of steel muzzle, and he could only open his mouth the tiniest bit. Unfortunately, not enough to breathe enough fire to cause any damage to the muzzle or the cage, which were probably fireproof anyways. Redclaw sat back, confused. Why was he in a cage and not a pokeball...and how had he fallen unconscious?

Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he glanced around at the room and noticed several other pokémon in cages; some unconscious and some awake. A quick look all around told him that Thunder wasn't among them.

Next to him, a caged girafarig was waking up. The pokémon looked around before turning to Redclaw. "Where are we?" she asked, giving Redclaw a confused look.

"I…I don't know…" the arcanine stammered, when a voice interrupted him.

"You're in one of Team Rocket's training facilities."

The speaker was an espeon, who wore a black collar with a red symbol on the front of it. The espeon wore a few dirty bandages around his shoulders and middle, and Redclaw recognized him. He was the pokémon who had used his psychic attacks on him and fought Thunder.

Before Redclaw could say anything, the espeon continued speaking. "Wondering what Team Rocket is doing so far from Kanto? Well you'd be surprised…we have plenty of other bases elsewhere, and not many people come by this part of the region. This base was built for pokémon training and experimentation, and it's perfectly safe from police and trainers. Anyway, you are all in cages because you're going to be put through a test that you will get to watch-we only want strong pokémon fighting for us. And no-it's not optional, don't get your hopes up. The test should be in a little while, as soon as my trainers sort out all the pokémon they've caught."

"You…" Redclaw growled, glad that he could still talk in spite of the muzzle, "You're the one who-"

"Please," the espeon muttered, rolling his eyes, "Call me Solus. I don't like being referred to as "you", especially by low-ranking pokémon such as yourself."

Redclaw momentarily forgot his anger. "Low-ranking?" he repeated, puzzled.

"You haven't been given the test yet," Solus replied, "And you'll have to work your way up to get to my status…you'll have to prove that you're loyal."

The girafarig in the cage beside Redclaw's suddenly reared up angrily. "Loyal?" she spat, "Give me one good reason why I should be loyal to humans like those! They took me from the pokémon center and away from my home forever! Why should I serve you?"

Solus merely turned, looking uninterested. "That's what they all say…" he muttered slyly, before turning his attention to a boy wearing the same uniform as the other Team Rocket members, who had just walked into the room. "The new recruit…" Redclaw heard the espeon mutter.

The boy hesitantly picked up a backpack, which Redclaw could see contained more pokéballs. "What's he doing?" Redclaw whispered to the girafarig.

"Bringing in more pokémon for the cages," the girafarig snorted, "I assume they want us all in this big room at once, for whatever reason." She glanced around the room and turned to Redclaw. "What's your name?" she asked.

For a moment, Redclaw considered giving her his real name; the name his parents had given to him in the wild, but he rejected that thought immediately. He wouldn't be able to bear being called by that name; the memories of what he once had and lost would be far too painful for him. "Redclaw," he stated at last.

"My name is Ardunia," the girafarig replied, nodding to Redclaw.

Redclaw was about to reply when he noticed that, one by one, the boy with the backpack was releasing pokémon. The other Rocket members looked unimpressed as one by one the boy released mildly or pretty badly injured pokémon, who were taken to cages; some tranquilized first, others just carried-too weak to fight back.

"Please tell me you caught something worthwhile and didn't go catching all the badly injured ones," one of the Rockets, whom Redclaw recognized as Solus's trainer, said while rolling his eyes at the new recruit.

"I…I didn't think these were too bad…" the boy stammered, "With a bit of healing they could become strong fighters…" The other trainer didn't reply, and the boy reached for another pokéball, hoping that this one contained a pokémon that would impress the others; he knew he'd caught some that were fairly strong. Taking a deep breath, he released the pokémon.

The moment he released it, he knew he'd made a bad choice. The pokémon couldn't stand, and when he released it, it toppled over onto its side, grimacing in pain. Redclaw, however, just stared. It was Stormblade.

He watched as Solus's trainer walked over to the boy, looking anything but amused. "What…is _this_?" he muttered, pointing to Stormblade.

"It's a scyther…uh, sir…" the boy replied shakily.

"I know it's a scyther, you idiot!" the older trainer snapped, "Why on earth did you catch it? I specifically told you…get the ones we can_ battle_ with! Not that ones that were going to be put to sleep anyway in the next few days!" Reaching for the backpack, he grabbed it from the boy's hands, glaring at him. "How many _other_ pokéballs did you waste?" he growled, throwing the backpack to the ground.

The boy looked frightened. "I…I did what you said," he whispered sheepishly, "I caught the ones I thought we could use…it may be hurt but it's still a _scyther_…once it heals it'll be a powerful fighter for us."

"Really?" Solus's trainer sneered, "And what makes you think we want to waste medical attention on something so weak?" Beside him, Redclaw could hear Ardunia fidgeting uncomfortably in her cage. He turned to see that the girafarig looked worried, as she stared at Stormblade and the other badly injured pokémon. She paced back and forth in the small space, though there was scarcely enough room to turn around. Redclaw felt sorry for her; it must be hard for a girafarig to have to stay in a confined space.

"It can be strong!" the new recruit was saying, "Pokémon like scyther are tough…and if this one survived getting these injuries in the first place…it must be strong!"

Solus's trainer looked down at Stormblade, who lay slightly curled up on the floor. He aimed a kick at the scyther's back, where it was bandaged, and Stormblade merely growled in response. "It didn't even try to strike back," the trainer muttered, shaking his head, "Doesn't seem strong. However…since you seem so keen on convincing me that this scyther was worth catching, I'll make a deal with you. We'll test it. If it survives, we'll let it recover and you'll have succeeded in your task. If not, then you've failed your task." He glanced scornfully at the other pokémon the boy had captured, and they shrank back fearfully in their cages.

"F-failed?" he replied, looking frightened.

The other Rocket member smiled. "Yes, failed. So do you accept the deal or not?"

The boy hesitated for a moment, then looked at Stormblade, and nodded.

"Well then…" came the other trainer's reply, "Let's see if this scyther really _is_ as tough as you claim it is…" He crouched down, fitting a metal collar with a chain around Stormblade's neck, noticing that the scyther didn't move. Without showing the slightest sign of wariness, he began dragging Stormblade across one side of the room, where he stopped next to a large flat metal surface, like a large table close to the ground, by which rested a small machine. Stormblade still hadn't moved.

"What are they doing?" Ardunia spat, disgusted. Redclaw said nothing and continued to watch.

The new recruit followed slowly, now looking uncertain. "Are…are you sure you should be doing this? I mean, it's an injured flying type…and even healthy pokémon die sometimes…"

"But it's _tough_, right?" Solus's trainer replied mockingly, "What do you have to worry about?"

"Stormblade!" Redclaw cried out, though the sound was muffled by the muzzle, "Get up and move!" At the moment, the Rocket's back was to Stormblade, but to Redclaw's dismay, the scyther didn't even look up. Redclaw lowered his head. _Stormblade was too weak…_

As some of the other Rocket grunts walked over to Stormblade, one of them asked, "Isn't this a waste of time? We have work to do…it won't survive…"

"Jeremy here says it will!" Solus's trainer replied, and the boy merely glanced at the floor.

"What's…what's happening?" Redclaw asked Ardunia, watching as the humans, with the aid of some of their pokémon, moved Stormblade onto the slab of metal, attaching part of his chain to one of the many rings on the wall near the machine, but attaching it in a way that made the chain from where it attached from Stormblade's collar to the wall a lot shorter, making it impossible for the scyther to sit or lie down. When Stormblade tried to raise his scythe at one of the Rockets, a blow to the head from a Team Rocket aggron stunned him.

Redclaw watched as shackles were attached to Stormblade's arms and legs, and chained to certain parts of the metal table, immobilizing him. Redclaw glanced worriedly at Ardunia, who pawed angrily at the floor of her cage, scraping her hooves sharply across the metal.

Stormblade could feel burning pain shooting up his broken leg, and he tried to lift it, even if only a little bit, knowing that even putting his weight on it only slightly had caused him excruciating pain before. Even though he tried, there wasn't much he could do, and he could tell he was being purposely forced to stand that way.

As one of the Rocket members moved toward the small machine, Solus, who was sitting near Redclaw's cage, began a whispered conversation with a Rocket golduck. Meanwhile, the human near the machine smiled and stepped back. And at the same moment, Stormblade started screaming.

Redclaw stepped back, his eyes wide, as Stormblade began to struggle and thrash as tremendous volts of electricity began surging through his body from the machine. Every pokémon in the cages was staring horrified at the struggling pokémon, fearing they might be the next.

"So far, so good, eh?" Solus's trainer smirked with a glance at Jeremy, the new recruit, "Too bad it's only just starting…" As he spoke, the electricity flowing through Stormblade's body seemed to intensify, and he thrashed harder, trying desperately to reach the shackles or collar with his blades, teeth, anything! Stormblade no longer seemed aware of anything around him. All he could think of and feel was this horrible agony that he could do nothing to stop.

"It's still alive!" Jeremy shouted, "You can stop now-it's proven that it's strong…"

"We're still just beginning," Solus's trainer replied smoothly, not giving the boy a glance.

Stormblade's struggles were growing more desperate. The scyther's wings were flared out, and he was straining against the collar and shackles, in some desperate attempt to break free, pushing back with his legs against the metal table, so hard that blood began seeping from the bandages around his injured leg, and Redclaw was almost certain he would break it again at any moment. However, Stormblade didn't even seem to notice. He pulled madly at the chains, unable to do anything else but stand and endure the torture.

Jeremy could not understand the scyther's words as it screamed, but he was sure it was probably begging them to stop…to end it. Shakily, he turned toward the others. "It's lasted long enough…" he began.

"I'll be the judge of that," Solus's trainer sneered back at him.

Stormblade's cries intensified, and he continued to thrash madly, unable to bear the agony any longer.

"Please just stop!" Jeremy shouted desperately.

This time, Jeremy got no reply, and the Rockets merely watched the scyther calmly. Redclaw watched in horror as Stormblade's struggles grew weaker, and his screams stopped. The scyther could do nothing but feebly pull against the chains now.

Then suddenly, it all stopped. Stormblade's collar chain was carefully detached from the wall, and he collapsed on the table, jerking and trembling in excruciating pain, sparks flying across the table and his body. Smoke rose from the collar and shackles; the heated metal had burned into his neck and limbs.

Redclaw glanced at Ardunia, who seemed as if she'd been holding her breath the whole time. "He's alive..." the girafarig whispered slowly.

By Redclaw's cage, Solus nudged the Rockets' golduck. "Pay up," he said with a smirk, and the golduck grudgingly placed a few pokéblocks in front of the espeon.

"Well, I suppose you were right about this one…" Solus's trainer stated, "We'll treat its injuries, though if it doesn't show improvement within a few weeks, we'll have to dispose of it." He turned toward Stormblade, who was still lying against the slab of metal, trembling uncontrollably; his breathing coming in ragged gasps every few seconds. Without a word the trainer picked up Stormblade's pokéball and returned him, before striding out of the room. "Get the rest of them in cages," he called over his shoulder, motioning to the backpack containing the rest of the pokéballs.

As he left, Solus turned toward Redclaw with a smirk. "It'll be your turn soon…" he said with a grin.

* * *

Stormblade woke up slowly, vaguely aware that he must have passed out some time after being returned to his pokéball. He was still shaking uncontrollably, and he could feel the pain in his leg getting worse as he woke up more fully, his hazy vision clearing enough for him to realize that he was in some sort of small cell, next to many others. He was lying on an old blanket in his own cell, but there was no food or water. In the cells next to him, he could hear a few pokémon crying out or whimpering. _Where was this place…?_

Feeling worried but too weak to stand up, he lifted his head, listening to the cries of the other pokémon. He could see some of them wearing dirty bandages, and he assumed this was where injured pokémon were healed. However, Stormblade knew that if this place were a Pokémon Center, it would be closed down immediately; these pokemon were all obviously still in pain, and none of them had received anything close to adequate care. They had probably only had their wounds bandaged and been given medicine to fight infection, and then were just kept here.

Laying his head back down, Stormblade tried to appreciate the thin blanket the humans had given him to lay on. It didn't offer much warmth or comfort, but it was better than the cold concrete ground of his small cell. He was actually surprised they had given him a blanket; none of the other pokémon had one, and he wondered which human had given it to him. He wished whoever had given him the blanket had given him some food or water too. Apart from a single rawst berry to help heal his wounds from Thunder's trainer's Arcanine, he hadn't eaten since he and Spark had passed through the forest alone. That had been before meeting Snowcrystal.

He wasn't quite sure how long he would be here, but in the back of his mind, he feared that the humans would grow tired of waiting for him to heal, and find a way to get rid of him.

* * *

Rosie knew she shouldn't rest long. Painfully, she staggered upright on three legs, holding her broken forepaw above the ground. Limping forward, she decided to try and make it as far away from the poachers as she could, ignoring the pain in her leg…or trying to.

A few times, Rosie collapsed when the pain was too much. Every time however, she would get up again, and keep going; her fear of what the poachers would do if they caught her motivated her to carry on, despite the pain. She knew they probably wouldn't even be looking for her, but all the same, she had to keep going…

To carry on as fast as she could…

* * *

Back at the ruined Pokémon Center, a police officer was talking to Officer Jenny, while standing beside a small, sandy-haired boy, who kept looking worriedly at Jenny.

"He says his meowth had a tracking collar," the other officer explained, and turned to the boy before asking, "Was your meowth injured when you brought it to the Pokémon Center?"

Looking surprised, the boy shook his head. "No," he replied, "I just wanted the nurses to check on him…I thought he might be getting sick…they said they had a lot of other injured pokémon to take care of but they said they would check on him…"

Listening, Jenny waited until he was done speaking before replying, "If the meowth was taken in just to be checked on, it must have been in its pokéball for most of the time. I think there's a very likely chance it was stolen. Where those people took it, no one can be sure, but the areas beyond this city are mostly vastly unexplored wilderness which little is known about; it's very likely that they could have set up some sort of base there. Stonedust _is_ one of the most isolated cities in this region, and most trainers don't dare venture north of here. Vast wastelands, dangerous ice mountains and many other harsh territories that have never been fully explored...it's no wonder."

Ignoring the boy's horrified look, she continued, "But if they've only barely captured all the pokémon, I'm sure we can use the meowth's collar to find their location, before they realize it's a tracking collar…and _that's_ how we'll find out where they're hiding!"

_To be continued..._

_I finally started submitting this again; the next chapter will be soon!_


	24. Battle at the Rocket's Base

_(New chapter! I still have a lot to post, and I'll try to do so soon now that I know people are reading this!)_

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 24-Battle at the Rocket's Base**

Justin backed away, terror marked on his face as he watched the scyther leap forward. With a cry of shock he ducked as the outstretched blade moved toward him, coming dangerously close to impaling him. Justin knew he had only managed to dodge fast enough because the scyther was slowed down by its injuries. As Justin had ducked, the pokémon's blade had become partially embedded in the wall of the building he'd been standing against, giving him the time to scramble to his feet and run.

Yanking her arm free, Thunder watched Justin through narrowed eyes before giving chase, ignoring any and all pain from her wounds.

Justin bolted out of the alleyway and back towards the ruined pokémon center, where he was sure Katie had gone to ask for help from the nurses who were probably still there. Not for the first time, he wished he had a pokémon-_any pokémon_, with him. Fear coursed through him as he heard the scyther run up behind him, and though he tried to dodge, he felt one of its razor-sharp blades slice across his back. The cut wasn't deep enough to cause any real serious damage, but it felt as painful as if he had been lashed by a whip.

Justin cried out, collapsing on his hands and knees, feeling blood trickling down his back and wondering why someone hadn't come to help him. At about that time, the scyther's other blade struck him, creating a long cut very similar to the first and knocking him over on his side. Panicked, Justin tried to stand up and run away, all the while calling for help as the scyther lifted its blade above him.

To his surprise, his cry was answered almost immediately. He heard a man shout something, and the scyther scream and back away. Looking up, he saw a manectric dart between him and the scyther, sparks flying from its wiry fur. Glaring at the electric pokémon, the scyther looked ready to fight, but as the manectric's trainer came into view and got ready to release another pokémon, it turned and limped off, vanishing into the dark alley again.

"Manectric," the trainer told his pokémon, "Make sure that scyther doesn't attack anyone else." The electric pokémon nodded in reply and darted after the scyther.

Meanwhile, Justin had gotten to his feet, and turned to the man whose pokémon had saved him. "Th-thank you…" he mumbled shakily.

"That wasn't…_your_ scyther, was it?" the trainer asked, giving Justin a strange look.

"No!" Justin replied shakily, "It was just lying in the streets…until it woke up and attacked me!"

The trainer looked slightly confused. "You didn't provoke it in any way, did you?"

"No…" Justin whispered, shaking his head. The man continued to look at him oddly, and without another word, Justin turned and ran, hoping to find Katie. The trainer shouted something after him, but he ignored it.

Trying to forget the wounds in his back, Justin kept running, as if afraid the trainer had actually seen him harm the scyther.

He just wanted to get as far away from there as possible…

* * *

Thunder was relieved when she at last made it away from the city and her claws finally touched soil. She had just undergone a frantic dash through the city, and had just managed to get away from that trained manectric. Shakily she walked forward, feeling worn out after running and in pain from her wounds. Blood was steadily dripping from several of them, but she paid it no notice; being free was all that mattered.

Picking up her pace, she broke into a run again, heading further away from humans and their city. She was once again free, and now she was on her own. No longer would she be able to travel with the group, and she figured that was for the best; relying on others for help or safety was _never_ a good idea…

* * *

After a long while of traveling through the darkness of the night, Thunder stopped to rest in a large grassy field, unsure of which direction she would travel next. She knew she could not head back to where they had found-and disturbed, the combee hive, and putrid, blue tinged smoke rising in the distance in another direction was proof that some fire had started, convincing her not to head that way either.

Lying down, she decided to rest as she forced thoughts of pain from her mind, focusing on more important tasks. If she was to survive, she would have to learn how to hunt on her own.

For a moment, she felt a pang of regret as she thought of the other pokémon she had traveled with, who had wanted to help her, but she vigorously shook the thoughts from her mind. She could not accept help from them. She had never even needed help. There had been no point in traveling with them anymore. She was far better off on her own, and she _always_ had been.

* * *

Justin had reached Katie before she and the nurse had gotten to the area where they had found the injured scyther. After the wounds the scyther gave him had been treated, the two watched in silence as the police, as well as many skilled trainers who had volunteered to help, prepared to seek out the thieves who had killed and stolen so many pokémon.

They had gone back to the area near the Pokémon Center, where most of the nurses were still trying to help any surviving pokémon from the outside enclosures who had been injured from the blast.

It wasn't long before the trainers and police had all assembled in front of the Pokémon Center, and wasting no time they left quickly, either in cars or riding on the backs of pokémon.

After they had left, Katie smiled and turned to Justin. "I'm going to follow them," she stated firmly, walking in the direction they had gone as she had reached for one of her pokéballs.

"What?" Justin replied, "I thought you'd have to be a skilled trainer to-"

"Nobody's going to stop me," Katie replied, "They'll be far too busy trying to catch those people. They won't care that I'm following."

Justin watched as Katie walked out of sight of anyone by the Pokémon Center, and sent out her pidgeot. The large brown and tan eagle-like pokémon immediately soared into the air, circling some of the buildings before coming to land beside his trainer.

Climbing onto the bird pokémon's back, Katie turned toward Justin. "Are you coming?" she asked.

"But…but I don't have any pokémon!" Justin stammered angrily, "And in case you haven't noticed…I've just been attacked by that "poor hurt, innocent" scyther!"

"If you want to stay behind you can," Katie replied, sounding disappointed, "But if you come, you can use one of _my_ pokémon."

For a moment, Justin hesitated, but to Katie's surprise, he mumbled, "Fine…" And hesitantly climbed onto Pidgeot's back behind Katie.

"Hold on!" Katie warned as Pidgeot spread his wings and took off, soaring into the air and high above the city at frightening speeds.

Shocked, Justin gripped Katie's waist tighter, averting his eyes from the sight of the streets now far below him. _'What was I thinking…'_ he thought to himself as he closed his eyes tightly, wondering if being able to battle with a pokémon again would be worth all this, and wondering if either of them really knew what they could be getting into.

* * *

Wildflame, Snowcrystal, and Spark had only rested a short while before moving on, leaving the blazing forest behind them. The smoke hadn't traveled far, and the three traveled at a leisurely pace through a wide grassy field, knowing that they were now well away from the danger.

Her mind still in turmoil about why Blazefang and the Forbidden Attack, Wildflame quietly followed the playful growlithe and jolteon. _'Why did he use that attack?'_ she thought, _'I thought he'd know better than that after what I told him about Shadowflare…is he really that power-hungry?'_

Every once in a while, Snowcrystal, who led the way with Spark, would spot a small prey pokémon up ahead and run toward it, hoping to catch it, though not having any success. While stalking a pidgey, the growlithe heard a cry of pain which sent the small pokémon flying off. Turning to find the source of the cry, she noticed that Spark had collapsed on the grass a little ways behind her.

Painfully, Spark stood up. "Ow…my leg…" he moaned, "Do you think we could rest for a little while?"

Giving Spark a concerned look, Snowcrystal turned her questioning gaze toward Wildflame. The houndoom jerked out of her thoughts as she realized that Snowcrystal had asked her a question, and replied, "Okay," regardless of the fact that she had hardly heard the question.

"Wildflame…" Snowcrystal asked, noticing the houndoom's strange behavior, "Are you all right?"

"Huh? Oh…yeah, I'm fine," Wildflame replied quickly, "I was just…thinking."

Suddenly Snowcrystal's ears pricked up. She sniffed the air curiously and stood up warily.

The growlithe padded through the grass as she scanned the grassy area ahead of her. Wildflame noticed the odd behavior and padded over to her.

"What is it?" the houndoom asked.

"It's this scent…" Snowcrystal whispered, "It smells really familiar, though still sort of different…"

Wildflame lifted her head and sniffed the air, soon catching the scent of a pokémon on the breeze. The more experienced pokémon's eyes widened. "Rosie…" she whispered.

"Rosie?" Snowcrystal repeated, perplexed, "Are you sure? How can you tell?"

"Follow me," Wildflame said in answer and bounded ahead with Snowcrystal and Spark following.

Rosie had been limping through the grassy field solemnly, not even stopping to enjoy the fresh scent of the many flowers dotting the field. The flowers which she normally loved now only seemed to get in her way. Her head hung low and her nine tails dragged behind her as she stumbled along.

"Rosie!" a distant voice shouted, causing the ninetales to lift her head in surprise.

Leaning back on her hind legs and trying to peer around, she noticed that three distant figures were running towards her.

At first, she thought of running away, but as the shapes got closer, she could see them a bit more clearly, and Snowcrystal's white pelt stood out clearly against the flowery background.

Relief and excitement filled her mind as she recognized them, and she ran toward them on three legs, shouting, "Snowcrystal, Wildflame, Spark! It's me!"

Hearing that shout, Snowcrystal, Spark, and Wildflame increased their pace, now definitely knowing that the scent they had found actually was their lost friend. The four pokémon met in the center of the field, all shouting joyfully to one another with relief and forgetting their exhaustion.

"Rosie!" Snowcrystal cried, "You evolved! You're a ninetales now! And…and what happened to your leg?" the growlithe asked, looking startled as she noticed the injury.

"It's broken," Rosie replied, her gaze darkening, "It happened while I was escaping…"

A pause ran over them; all four knew that the past few days had been harsh, ever since Blazefang's pack had attacked them. After they had sat down and Rosie had related her story to them, from the capture, to the battles and how Nightcloud the mightyena had helped her, she asked the others a few questions herself.

"Where are Thunder and Stormblade? Are they all right? And…and what happened to your leg, Spark?"

Rosie soon found her answers in the form of her friends' stories. After each had explained what they needed to, another stunned silence fell over the group as they each contemplated the situation, though none voiced their thoughts.

Snowcrystal thought back to the two scyther. _Were they all right? What was happening to them now? _Snowcrystal knew that worrying would only cause more problems now, so she forced the thoughts from her mind.

'_When we find Articuno'_, she reassured herself, _'He could find them…If any of them could rescue them…Articuno could…'_

For a while they all rested, and Rosie made sure to keep her leg as still as possible, hoping it would heal well. Wildflame and Spark managed to hunt, and for once in what seemed like a long time, despite the pain and turmoil they had undergone and the worry about their friends, the four pokémon could have a moment of peace.

* * *

The police and trainers who had been tracking down the pokémon thieves were lucky. Thanks to the meowth's tracking collar, they had found the location of the pokémon and the thieves who had taken them. Now, they stood in view of a massive building, partially hidden beside towering columns of dusty colored stone forming a ridge around the building on all sides but one. Several more of these tall stone cliffs were all over the area, and even in the afternoon sun, the place still seemed eerie.

The location had not been as far from Stonedust as many of the trainers had thought; it hadn't taken nearly as long to reach it as they had suspected and many of the trainers recognized the towering stone formations from pictures. It was an area that was in some places inhabited by hostile wild pokémon, and the steep rocks themselves posed a threat to travelers. It was said to be a very dangerous place. If it hadn't been for the meowth's tracking collar, no one would have thought to look there-it seemed far too hostile a place to bring stolen pokémon to train.

"Who do you think built this place?" one of the trainers asked.

"Not sure," replied a police officer, "But if we're going to find the pokémon, we have to find a way inside quickly. Follow me."

Without another word, the trainers and their pokémon headed along the base of the towering rock cliffs and closer to the building.

* * *

Redclaw was not sure how longer he could take it. One by one the pokémon had been brought up to the machine and tested. Some survived the electric shock and were returned to their pokéballs or put back in cages; others fell still and never got up. Horrified, Redclaw had tried not to watch, though even when he looked away their screams still reached his ears.

And it would be _his_ turn soon. Despite trying to fight it, Redclaw was afraid. If the test had been something other than an electric shock, he knew he wouldn't be so terrified. But the memory of the collar Master had given him was far too strong, and Redclaw was terrified.

Ardunia glanced toward him, sharing his fear. Most of the pokémon the new recruit had brought had not survived, and several others who were injured or sick had perished as well. How Stormblade lived through it, she would never know.

A sound alerted both Redclaw and Ardunia as the bayleef in the cage on the other side of Redclaw's was returned to its pokéball and brought over to the machine. Fearfully, Redclaw rubbed his head against the bars of his cage, in a hopeless and futile attempt to get his muzzle off.

However, just as the bayleef was released and shackled to the machine, all activity stopped as another Team Rocket trainer ran into the room, looking startled. "Intruders!" he shouted, "And they brought the police!"

"What?" replied the trainer who owned Solus in an outraged tone, "How did they-"

He didn't get to finish, for at that moment, a large section of the far wall was blown apart, sending debris flying in all directions. Through the new opening in the wall, several trainers and police officers stood, as well as several pokémon. At the front of the group was a trainer standing next to a tyranitar, who had obviously used hyper beam.

Enraged, Solus's trainer lifted his gun, but as he fired, a large translucent barrier from a trainer's psychic pokémon materialized in front of the humans and their pokémon, blocking the bullet. Lowering the gun, he glanced toward Solus. "Espeon, attack!" he shouted, pointing toward the trainers.

Solus leaped up and ran toward the trainers and police, followed by several other Team Rocket pokémon. Redclaw pressed his paws and muzzle against the bars of his cage, watching the battle beginning to take place.

Pokémon of all types filled the room; some fighting, others protecting the trainers and police or the Rockets. Near the front of the group of trainers, Justin and Katie, who had snuck in after the others, yelled commands to some of Katie's pokémon-Katie commanding Azumarill and Justin commanding Katie's persian.

For reasons he could not explain, Justin did not feel afraid. Watching Persian fight was an amazing feeling-it seemed like such a long time since he had watched a pokémon battle for him. "Persian, thunderbolt!" he shouted, watching the tawny cat-like pokémon's pelt stiffen before she fired several jagged bolts of electricity at the Rocket's pokémon. Nearby, Azumarill was battling head-to-head with a croconaw.

As Redclaw was watching, he noticed several other trainers moving away from the fight and finding pokéballs, releasing captured pokémon as well as finding empty ones and returning those in cages and letting them out in the room. One of the trainers seemed to have managed to steal keys from the Rockets, and she ran up to Ardunia's cage, unlocking it and letting the girafarig run free. Next, she opened Redclaw's, and after carefully examining his muzzle, found a way to open that too and take it off.

Leaping to the smooth floor outside the cage, Redclaw heard a police growlithe shout, "Pokémon, follow me! The way out is this way, hurry!"

Redclaw, along with Ardunia and several other freed pokémon started to follow while the Rocket pokémon were distracted, when Redclaw suddenly stopped. "Stormblade…" he whispered.

"What?" Ardunia called from up ahead.

"Keep following them!" Redclaw shouted, turning around, "There's someone I need to find!"

Watching the arcanine turn and run toward an open doorway, Ardunia sighed worriedly before turning and following the other escapers.

* * *

Katie's pokémon were soon tired and wounded, and having no choice, she and Justin had had been forced to follow some of the other trainers out of the building. The ones that remained were still fighting, and the Team Rocket agents were soon being driven back. Already, several of the Rocket's fighting pokémon had been taken by the trainers and brought outside as the trainers' pokémon protected them from attack.

At last, outnumbered and unprepared, the Rockets turned and fled, with the police soon following. One of the trainers led some others into other rooms, searching for more pokémon who still remained trapped in the building.

* * *

Redclaw hadn't gone far down one of the dimly-lit hallways when a voice from behind stopped him. A male houndoom was running toward him, calling for him to wait. Redclaw watched as the sleek dark type came to a halt beside him, looking out of breath. "The way out is back that way," he told Redclaw, obviously assuming that the arcanine had gotten lost.

"I know," Redclaw replied, "But my friend…that scyther they took away, is in another room somewhere, and I have to…"

"Stop!" a harsh voice called from behind. The two dog-like pokémon turned around to see the espeon, Solus, walking toward them from the end of the hallway they had come from.

Without a word the houndoom leaped forward, with a speed that surprised the espeon. Knocking the injured psychic type to the ground, he pressed his paw against Solus's throat, leaning his head closer to him. "All right, you obviously know your way around here," the houndoom growled, "Where did your trainers take the scyther?"

Solus's eyes widened in shock as he realized how much he was at a disadvantage. The houndoom was a large and powerful dark type, while he was injured and would be weak to the dog-like pokémon's attacks. Gritting his teeth, he hissed back, "The Medical Ward…what do you think…_genius_?"

"Where…is…that?" the houndoom muttered in a low growl, pressing his foot down harder.

Solus gasped as he struggled, kicking his back legs frantically at the houndoom. "It's on one of the lower floors!" he spat, "Below the first floor…underground…" By now he was struggling to breathe.

"How do we get there?" Redclaw asked.

The houndoom was about to ask a similar question when shouts reached their ears. Letting go of Solus, he pounded through the halls beside Redclaw as several Rocket grunts appeared around the doorway.

"Guess we find it ourselves…" the dark type muttered grimly.

* * *

Stormblade had also heard commotion. Next to the room he was currently resting in, was the largest experimentation room in the Rocket's base. Though he did not know what the room actually was, he could hear shouts coming from within it.

"What's that?" a young linoone asked, sounding frightened.

"Something's going on in one of the experiment rooms…" a rapidash replied.

"Experiment rooms?" a beedrill repeated, confused.

Before anyone could answer, a door to the room opened, and a young female trainer, obviously not belonging to Team Rocket, stepped inside. "Who is she?" Stormblade heard the linoone ask, but his question was quickly answered.

Finding keys and moving as fast as she could, the trainer began unlocking the cages, letting every pokémon run free. Stormblade saw the door to his cage swing open, but he did not think he could stand. He watched as the last of the pokémon were freed and they along with the trainer, who was showing them the way, left the room.

"Wait!" Stormblade called out weakly, trying to move toward the open doorway. He didn't make it far, and collapsed, pain overwhelming him and preventing him from moving as the others made their escape, leaving him behind.

* * *

Meanwhile, other pokémon were being released from cages and pokéballs within a large experimentation room, the room right next to the Medical Ward. The room was massive and contained several large, strange looking machines as well as rows of tables to which pokémon were meant to be strapped to. The shouting had stopped; the Rockets there had fled, and the pokémon were being released and told to follow a trainer pokémon up flights of stairs to the first floor at ground level.

Freeing a small mareep from a cage, one of the trainers began carrying it toward the other freed pokémon when something made her stop in her tracks.

Over twenty Team Rocket trainers surrounded by several large pokémon were entering the room. The trainers helping the pokémon started to back away, knowing that their own pokémon were weak, as the Rockets gave their pokémon the order to attack.

* * *

Redclaw and the houndoom darted through another hallway, looking for a way to the floors below ground level. Redclaw stopped, hearing several pokémon coming their way. "That way!" he cried, heading in their direction, soon finding a large flight of stairs leading down to the next floor, and many pokémon were running up them.

"Help them," Redclaw told the houndoom, "I'm going down there to find Stormblade." The houndoom nodded in reply as Redclaw addressed some of the fleeing pokémon, "Did any of you see a scyther? Or the Medical Ward?"

Quicker than he expected, he got an answer. A small linoone looked up at him with wide blue eyes and nodded. "There was a scyther in that room down there!" he told Redclaw.

"Where?" the arcanine asked.

"It's a room with a lot of cages," the linoone answered, "Down three flights of stairs and you'll see a large door with a big window on it near the bottom of the third set of stairs. Go through it!"

"Thanks," Redclaw told the linoone as the small pokémon ran off. Bounding down the stairs, he quickly passed the first flight, and soon spotted the second. Following the linoone's instructions, he raced down the narrow stairways until he reached the bottom of the third flight of stairs.

Looking around, Redclaw tried to spot a door like the one the linoone had described. Walking through the hallway a bit, he soon spotted a large open door, one with a window. Running through the doorway, he found himself in a strange room. The room looked like it belonged in a very low-budget pokémon center, with several syringes and other instruments lying along a counter in disarray. Redclaw noticed stains of blood both on the floor and on the thin sheets covering the bed that stood in the center of the room.

Pushing past another slightly open door, he walked into a room with rows of cages and small cells. At first he thought it was empty, until he noticed the still form of a scyther lying near the other side of the room, still in the cell.

"Stormblade!" Redclaw shouted, running over to the injured pokémon's side.

Stormblade looked up at Redclaw in disbelief, having thought for sure that he'd been completely abandoned. "Who are you…?" Stormblade whispered in a feeble voice, "How do you know my name?"

"Thunder told me," Redclaw replied, "I was there at the pokémon center with her. My name is Redclaw. I'm your friend."

"Thunder?" Stormblade replied, his voice sounding weaker, "Where's…Thunder?"

"I believe she escaped back at the Pokémon Center," Redclaw answered, "She wasn't brought here."

"Is she…ok?" Stormblade asked, obviously not comprehending that Redclaw couldn't know much about Thunder at the moment.

"I think so," Redclaw answered, though truthfully he was uncertain, "Now we need to get out of here…and quickly, before anyone sees us. The police and the pokémon who've already escaped have probably helped defeat the Rocket's pokémon who were following me. We need to get out now and follow them."

"I…I…can't stand…" came Stormblade's weak reply.

"You have to!" Redclaw replied, "We need to leave…I can help you! I'll help you get up and you can lean against me…"

Stormblade made no reply and Redclaw began to fear that he was in far too much pain to move. The sounds of battle reached his ears and the floor suddenly shook beneath his paws. A huge battle was taking place in a room nearby…

* * *

The trainers who had freed pokémon from the experimentation room found themselves in what seemed like an impossible fight. Humans and pokémon alike had already been injured, many seriously. Fearful, some of them hid behind machines or tables as the remaining trainers and pokémon fought.

One of them, the trainer with the tyranitar, knew that if there were many Team Rocket grunts here, there must be several still trying to hold the police off somewhere else, unless they had used their pokémon to teleport away. If so, had the others who'd come to stop these people already escaped the building and left them down here? He shook the thought from his mind, focusing on the battle they were now facing.

His tyranitar was weak; wounded in several places and nearly out of strength to fight. The trainer realized his pokémon could probably only manage one more attack. "Might as well make it a good one…" he muttered grimly to himself, and shouted to his pokémon, "Tyranitar, use-"

He paused for a second, his gaze moving toward the Rockets who were standing beside one of the large machines. In a sudden burst of fleeting hope, he finished, "Use hyper beam on that machine!"

With a strength borne of desperation, the tyranitar fired the attack straight at the machine the Rockets were standing by. Another trainer, looking on, noticed that it was only one of many machines in the room, and a look of fear crossed her face. "Wait!" she shouted, far too late, as the blast of energy struck the machinery.

The tyranitar and his trainer ducked behind a row of cages as the machine exploded, hearing several of the Rockets scream in anguish. Another explosion followed almost immediately after, engulfing several other machines and sending them and most of the room up in flames.

Weakened by the explosion, a part of the ceiling collapsed, damaging several rooms and part of the floor above, while fire spread quickly toward the other machines.

Not wasting any time, the trainers stood up and fled through the doorway on the mostly undamaged side of the room, knowing that they needed to get out of the building…and fast.

* * *

Redclaw heard the blasts from nearby and felt the walls and floor shake. Looking toward Stormblade, he tried to help the scyther stand, letting him lean against his shoulder. Stormblade's eyes were glazed over with pain and the effort to stand seemed almost too much for him. Redclaw tried to help him walk slowly, making his way carefully toward the door leading into the hallway while Stormblade limped beside him.

When Redclaw peered out of the open doorway, what he saw made him gasp. A large part of the hallway to his left was destroyed; the walls in one part of it had been broken down, and a large part of the ceiling had collapsed.

In his shock, he did not realize the danger he and Stormblade were in until it was too late.

The flames from the ruined machines in the experimentation room had triggered another, much bigger explosion as they destroyed another, larger machine. Without warning, a large section of the wall near Redclaw was blasted away, sending him and Stormblade flying backward toward the opposite end of the hallway.

Redclaw felt his leg strike something sharp-Stormblade's scythe, as he landed against the scyther, causing Stormblade to cry out in pain a moment before his head slammed against the wall, silencing him. Dazed, Redclaw looked up as a large section of the ceiling above them came crashing down. Unable to move away in time, Redclaw didn't even have time to scream before something crashed into his head and everything faded into blackness.

* * *

Outside, the last of the trainers had finally made it out of the building, though some had been injured. Several pokémon had not made it out, but the humans knew there was nothing they could do now.

The building was unsafe; part of the first few floors had collapsed in some places, damaged by the explosion caused by the tyranitar's hyper beam. Since the Rockets had probably used their abra to teleport away by now, the police had decided that it was best to get back to Stonedust city as soon as possible, as those who were injured needed help.

Knowing the Rockets who hadn't been caught would be distracted by the damage to their building, the trainers and police, along with the pokémon who were rescued, headed quickly back to the city, leaving the damaged building behind.

* * *

Justin and Katie, however, were not with them. Riding on the back of Katie's pidgeot, they had decided not to return to Stonedust city and carry on instead. Justin, however, had wanted to look for the white growlithe one more time, and Katie, who was also fascinated with rare and unusual pokémon, had eventually agreed.

It wasn't long before the pidgeot landed, near the group of rocks where the two had come across Stormblade before. Now that it wasn't raining, Katie was sure that her poochyena, who she had exchanged for one of her other pokémon back at the Pokémon Center before it had been destroyed, could follow the growlithe's scent now that it wasn't raining anymore.

Justin watched as the form of the black and gray wolf pup-like pokémon materialized in front of him. After Katie told her what to do, she ran off, happily searching for the scent of growlithe.

"Are you sure _this_ is going to work?" Justin asked skeptically, "The growlithe's scent was probably washed away by now…"

"Well it ran somewhere in these rocky fields when it left the city," Katie replied, "It has to still be here somewhere…which means there's definitely a scent to find. It couldn't have been captured yet, or else everyone would know about it by now."

Up ahead, the poochyena began barking excitedly. Katie and Justin ran to catch up, noticing the large footprint of a houndoom imprinted in the drying mud.

"There…there was a houndoom with the growlithe, remember?" Justin whispered.

Katie nodded. "Poochyena can follow their scent now," she replied, "I'm sure we can catch up to it." Without another word they headed through the field of pebbly mud, the small poochyena happily leading the way.


	25. Race Against Time

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 25-Race Against Time**

Rosie, Wildflame, Snowcrystal, and Spark had begun their journey again, searching for Articuno with renewed hope. Snowcrystal believed that if Rosie had managed to escape, there was certainly hope for Stormblade and Thunder, especially if they could convince Articuno to help them. The going was slow, however, because of Rosie and Spark's injuries, but this time, no one seemed to mind.

Wildflame had caught prey for them all earlier, and they had rested at a cool, fresh stream. Even Rosie was feeling better, though she was still forced to limp awkwardly. Spark stayed close to Rosie as they followed Wildflame and Snowcrystal. Rosie was quickly growing tired of his comments.

"You know what's good about being injured, Rosie?" the jolteon asked.

"Nothing…" Rosie muttered, annoyed.

Spark carried on as if he hadn't heard. "Everyone does stuff for you! Like that spearow Wildflame brought us…and how Snowcrystal brought me some water in a leaf…"

"Only because you were too much of a wimp to go to the stream yourself," Rosie muttered silently to herself.

"You know," Spark continued, "I wonder if Articuno will help find a new home for me…somewhere without dangerous humans or pokémon or _traps_, or _fire_, or any of those other things that have given us trouble on this journey. I hope that when we get Stormblade back he'll stop being so angry about Justin. There's nothing wrong with Justin…"

Suddenly Spark stopped, and Rosie felt a yank on several of her tails. Turning around, she saw Spark holding some of them in his mouth, grinning widely at her. Releasing the tails, the jolteon stated, "I've _always_ wanted to pull a ninetales's tail…and now I have!"

Rosie rolled her eyes. "When I find out how to place a thousand year curse on someone," she muttered to herself, "I'm putting one on Spark."

The four pokémon carried on at a slow pace, seeing no sign of danger as they traveled.

But they were unaware that they were being tracked.

* * *

Blazefang and the rest of his pack did not have much to worry about. Traveling ahead of Snowcrystal's group, they had all luckily managed to leave the forest well before it burned to the ground.

Now further away from the human's city, Blazefang felt some of his confidence returning, despite not knowing whether Wildflame could find out anything about Articuno yet or not.

Blazefang had put both Shadowflare incidents behind him. He had used the attack both times out of self defense, and there was nothing that could be done about the consequences of the attack now.

…Yet still in his mind, was the lingering fear of Shadowflare. He shuddered as he kept walking; sincerely hoping he would never have to use it again.

* * *

Katie and Justin stood in shock at the ruins of what had once been a small forest. Poochyena whimpered, hiding behind Katie and trembling in fear, clearly spooked by the area somehow.

"I don't understand…" Justin muttered, "It's spring time…I didn't think the forest would be dry enough to catch fire and burn down this easily…" he added, looking at what little charred remains of trees were left that littered the ground. "Let's go back…"

"No," Katie replied, "Let's go around. I want to see if there are any pokémon that escaped the fire…they might need help." As she and her poochyena headed off to travel around the burned forest, Justin had no choice but to follow them.

A few yards ahead, he heard Katie gasp and her poochyena whimper. He walked forward, seeing the charred remains of a shinx lying in their path. The pokémon had managed to escape, but too late. It was dead, it's body covered in deep, terrible burns. Justin realized that by looking at it, Katie would be reminded of her own shinx.

He backed away, not wanting to look at the dead pokémon, but to his surprise, Katie crouched beside it. "Katie…" he muttered, "It's dead. There's no use staying here."

"These burns…" Katie mused, gazing down at the shinx, "They look strange…just like the ones your scyther had…"

Justin flinched as Katie mentioned 'his' scyther, but only replied, "I don't see why that's such a big deal. Scyther got burned badly, and so did this poor shinx. There's nothing more to it than that."

Katie sighed and stood up, still looking confused, but nonetheless carried on as her poochyena searched for pokémon scent, hoping no other pokémon had ended up like that shinx had.

* * *

Redclaw awoke slowly, feeling dazed and light-headed. The arcanine carefully lifted his head, feeling a sharp pain in his leg. Ignoring it, he slowly stood up, vaguely hearing the creaking of the walls around him, and stepped in something warm and wet.

Looking down, he noticed that he was stepping in his own blood. There was a small, yet deep gash on his back leg, and it had obviously been bleeding quite a lot, though it looked to be only a small wound. Ignoring the blood, he looked around the hallway he'd been laying in, feeling himself start to wake up more fully.

As his hazy vision cleared and he gazed around the dimly lit hallway, he noticed debris strewn all around from the blast, and several of the walls were damaged; some blasted away completely. Looking up, he noticed a gaping hole in the ceiling; he could see clear up into the room above him.

Turning his gaze to the rubble-strewn floor, the arcanine searched for Stormblade, quickly spotting the scyther's limp form against the wall near where Redclaw had been lying before. Limping over to him, Redclaw could tell he was still unconscious. There was a dark stain on the wall where Stormblade's head had struck it, and as Redclaw inspected Stormblade closer, he noticed a deep wound on the scyther's head; a long gash that started from between his eyes and ran all along the top of his head. Redclaw was unsure of what had caused it, but he figured Stormblade had to have struck something sharp; maybe a part of the ceiling that had caved in.

Worried, Redclaw nudged Stormblade's head with his nose, but didn't get a response. He looked closer, and could tell that Stormblade was still breathing, though his breathing sounding strange.

Whimpering, Redclaw sat down beside the motionless scyther, softly licking the gash on his head, hoping to clean the wound. After a short while, Stormblade began to stir; his head turned away slightly and his wings twitched. Redclaw nudged him again, and Stormblade opened his eyes and looked up at him, though one of his eyes seemed unable to open fully. A moment later, he lay his head back down weakly, closing his eyes again.

"Stormblade…" Redclaw began, "We need to get out of here…"

Stormblade made no response and Redclaw wondered if he had even heard. "Stormblade…?" he asked again slowly.

"Whoareyou?" Stormblade mumbled in a dazed voice, opening his eyes only slightly.

Redclaw stared back at him, confused. "I'm…Redclaw…I told you that already," he said calmly, wondering if there was something wrong with Stormblade's memory.

However, a few moments later, Stormblade seemed to recognize him, and asked, "Why did you come in that room to find me?"

"Everyone else was leaving," Redclaw replied, watching Stormblade shudder as the walls creaked loudly again and realizing that any sound probably made the pain in his head worse, "Some trainers freed us, and they and the other pokémon left. I went back to find you…since it seems like the trainers were too busy to really notice how hurt you were."

"You should have just gone with them…" Stormblade whispered, closing his eyes against the pain that lanced through his skull.

"I wasn't going to leave anyone here, especially not a friend," Redclaw replied, "And I don't plan on leaving you here. We should…" he paused, seeing that Stormblade was obviously in no condition to stand up, let alone walk, and finished, "You should rest for now…stay here, I'll be right back."

Turning away from Stormblade, Redclaw headed down the hallway, hoping to find an easy way up to the first ground level floor and out of the building. As he turned a corner and headed toward the stairs, he noticed with shock that a part of them had collapsed, and the doorway to which the stairs led had been blocked by rubble. Worried, he decided to look for an easier path, one that Stormblade would be able to manage traveling through.

Pushing aside a door that looked badly damaged, he walked into a partially destroyed room, finding nothing but large wooden boxes inside. Several were damaged and their contents strewn across the floor, but a few had been knocked over and broken open; some containing packets of pokémon food. Grabbing as many as he could fit in his mouth, Redclaw limped back to Stormblade.

When he returned, Redclaw was dismayed to see that Stormblade had passed out again. Setting down the food packets, he carefully opened each one with his teeth while waiting for Stormblade to recover.

It took a while longer for Stormblade to wake up, and in that time, Redclaw had eaten his fill, having gone back to the room for more pokémon food. As Stormblade woke up this time, however, Redclaw could tell that he was more fully awake.

"Where are the humans who took us here?" Stormblade asked after a short while, painfully trying to sit up, "Have they all left?"

"I think so," Redclaw answered, "I don't think anyone's here but us…at least not in this part of the building." He glanced toward the remainder of the pokémon food packets and pushed them toward Stormblade. "I found these," the arcanine explained, "I was looking for an easy way up to the first floor…where I'm sure we can find a way out of here. The way I came from was blocked…I suppose we'll have to find another way. We're safe for now though," he added, and sat down, while Stormblade ravenously started eating the pokémon food.

Redclaw lay down, feeling worried. He didn't know how he and Stormblade were going to get out of the building any time soon, especially when Stormblade was so weak. Idly licking the cut on his back leg, Redclaw shivered slightly as one of the few working lights in the hallway flickered and went out, leaving him and Stormblade in semi-darkness.

Wearily, Redclaw leaned against the wall, feeling exhausted. The arcanine was still uncertain of what path they would take to get out of the building, but at the moment he felt too tired to search for another way to the first floor.

He was startled when the wall suddenly gave a violent shudder, and dust rained down on his head from the ceiling. Shaking his head to free the dust from his mane, Redclaw stood and backed away, hearing the walls around him creak and groan loudly.

Stormblade looked up from his meal, staring at the wall with his good eye. "What was that?" he whispered, his voice still sounding shaky and weak.

"I'm sure it's nothing…" Redclaw began, a moment before he had to duck out of the way as a large chunk of the ceiling fell to the floor, raising a cloud of dust which caused the arcanine to start coughing.

"Stay here," he told Stormblade between coughs, knowing the scyther really didn't have much of a choice, "I'm going to try to find an easy way out…"

Without waiting for a reply, Redclaw bounded off, clearing a heap of rubble in a single leap as he headed in a different direction than where he'd gone before; veering off into a different hallway. He was certain there had to be more stairs on this floor somewhere; it was only a matter of finding them.

Although when Redclaw turned a corner of the hallway, he didn't find stairs, but he found something else that made him stop in his tracks. Ahead of him, the ceiling had caved in, damaged by the blasts from before. The way was nearly blocked, and it looked as if more of the ceiling could collapse at any minute. Startled, Redclaw turned and ran back toward Stormblade, who was still eating. He noticed that the gash on the scyther's head was still bleeding, though not as badly as it had been before.

"Stormblade!" Redclaw gasped as he came to a halt beside the injured pokémon, feeling the floor shake as small pieces of the ceiling fell down on his head and shoulders, "We need to find a way out…I think…I think whatever caused those explosions must have really damaged most of the walls, and…" He paused for a second, looking around, before continuing, "And I think the whole place is about to…to come down on top of us…"

Stormblade stared back at him, first with a look of confusion, then one of fear. "Did you…find a way out?" he asked hesitantly.

"Not yet," Redclaw answered worriedly, "But we need to go now…we can try and see if there's another way out near where I found the pokémon food. Now stand up, I'm not sure how much time we have…"

As Redclaw had half expected, Stormblade did not move at first. After Redclaw asked again, Stormblade started to try. Shaking, the scyther closed his eyes, before pushing his blades against the floor and slowly heaving himself upright. It pained Redclaw to see him like this, and he fought back a lingering doubt that Stormblade was going to make it.

As the scyther got to his feet, using the wall for support, Redclaw stood beside him, letting him lean on his shoulder in case he collapsed. Fighting back his panic at being trapped, the arcanine attempted a smile as he looked back at Stormblade. "See? It won't be so hard if I'm helping you. Just…try not to put any weight on your hurt leg." Redclaw lightly flicked his tail over Stormblade's bandaged shoulder, immediately regretting it as he saw his friend wince. Muttering a quick apology, he started to head in the direction of the ruined stairs, forcing himself to walk slowly as he ignored every instinct that told him to leave Stormblade and save himself.

As the two pokémon came upon the partially destroyed set of stairs Redclaw had seen earlier, the arcanine glanced at the rubble blocking the doorway where the stairs had led, and sighed. "I don't think we have much time to…" he paused as the walls and floor shook again, and went on, "Searching for another way out will take too long. Let me see if I can clear the way for us."

As Stormblade shakily sat down, Redclaw bounded away from him, running up to the stairs and clearing the gap between them caused by the collapse easily, and swiftly reaching the blocked doorway. Using all the strength he could muster, Redclaw pushed aside the debris, moving enough of it until the pile collapsed, leaving most of the doorway open.

Eyes widening in shock, he stepped back.

Nearly the entire hallway ahead of him was up in flames, including the next set of stairs. Fearfully realizing how quickly the fire had spread to that part of the building, Redclaw could only wonder how long it would take the flames to reach him and Stormblade.

As his thoughts drifted back to the scyther, Redclaw felt at a loss for what to do. Being a fire type, he could make it through the fire, but Stormblade… couldn't.

Turning away from the fire, Redclaw bounded back down the ruined stairs and into the room where he'd found the pokémon food, suddenly getting an idea. Walking up to some of the large wooden boxes, he quickly pushed one of them out the door, as Stormblade watched him, looking confused.

Redclaw pushed the box underneath the gaping hole in the ceiling he had seen when he had first woken up. It was just tall enough for a pokémon of Stormblade's size to climb onto it and up through the opening. How Stormblade was going to climb up there, however, Redclaw wasn't sure.

Moving fast, Redclaw found a smaller box and pushed it next to the first one, hoping that would make it easier to climb, and then darted back to Stormblade.

As Redclaw helped the scyther back toward the boxes, he couldn't help being worried about how painfully slow he had to walk. Stormblade was almost constantly stumbling, and when Redclaw walked too fast, he would sometimes fall over. By the time they reached the boxes, more of the ceiling had collapsed further down the hallway, though thankfully not near them.

Pushing Stormblade toward the two boxes, Redclaw told him, "We can climb up to the next floor from here. You go first…I know the boxes won't break if you stand on them," he added, realizing that the boxes were definitely strong enough to hold a scyther's weight…but he was unsure if they would hold an arcanine's. He shook the thought from his mind. If the boxes were too weak, he could always reach the second floor using the stairs…but would it be wise to leave Stormblade alone for that time? And would using another route take too long?

Stormblade looked up through the hole in the ceiling worriedly. Trying to ignore the pain, he dug his scythes into the first wooden box and wearily hauled himself on top of it, with a little help from Redclaw. Once on top, Stormblade took a few shuddering breaths before painfully climbing up onto the next one.

Redclaw watched, still worried. "Hurry!" he called, pacing back and forth across the shaking floor as he watched Stormblade try to stand on the box without putting weight on his injured leg and using his scythes for support instead.

Carefully setting his injured leg down, Stormblade lifted his scythes toward the opening in the ceiling, but immediately gave a cry of pain and collapsed, nearly causing the box to fall over.

"Try again!" Redclaw yelled, and Stormblade detected a hint of panic in the arcanine's urgent voice.

Wiping the blood from his eyes with the dull side of his scythe, Stormblade carefully stood up, hearing the walls around him creak again. Reaching up with his scythes, he lodged them into the floor of the room above him, trying to pull himself through the opening, but after a few moments, he started to slip.

Redclaw could see that pain was preventing Stormblade from climbing up to the next floor. Leaping onto the taller box, Redclaw felt the wood splinter beneath his paws as he leaped upward, his front paws landing on the floor of the hallway above them. Scrabbling with his claws, Redclaw climbed up and onto the next floor, feeling the box beneath him splinter and break.

Once he was safely on the next floor, he ran toward Stormblade, grabbing the scyther's wing in his teeth and lifting him up safely away from the opening and onto the floor. Ignoring Stormblade's small whimpers of pain, Redclaw peered around, seeing smoke from the fire starting to fill the hallway, and a room who's walls had almost completely collapsed. "This way!" he told Stormblade, pointing with his muzzle in the opposite direction.

Helping Stormblade, Redclaw looked around for another set of stairs that would lead them up to the next floor. Slowly, smoke started to fill the hallway, and though it didn't bother Redclaw much, being a fire type, it made Stormblade start to cough terribly.

Redclaw glanced ahead, noticing a large, mostly undamaged room nearby, and walked inside it, spotting some thin metal stairs leading up into another room. Redclaw hesitated, not sure if he could help Stormblade up those stairs, as there seemed to be barely enough room for an arcanine to climb them.

"Stormblade…" Redclaw began, nudging his friend toward the stairs, "You can climb them…just use your scythes to help you…"

"All right…" Stormblade replied shakily, feeling the building shudder, "I'll try…"

As Stormblade agonizingly limped up the stairs, Redclaw followed carefully, hoping the flimsy looking stairs wouldn't be damaged before they made it to the top. Luckily, although Redclaw was forced to move slowly, the stairs held until they made it into the room in the floor above.

Wanting to look for a way to the first floor while Stormblade rested a bit, Redclaw walked further, looking for a set of stairs that would take them up to the floor above them, where all they would have to do would be to find a door leading outside.

Smelling smoke coming from a room nearby, Redclaw increased his pace, soon breathing a sigh of relief as he came across the a set of stairs leading up to a door that was wide open. Hearing the fire growing steadily closer, Redclaw dashed back to Stormblade, once again helping the scyther back to his feet. Stormblade looked as if he could pass out any minute, and Redclaw sincerely hoped he could make it up these stairs and out of the building.

As the two pokémon neared the stairs, Redclaw lifted his head at a crashing sound from above. Both scyther and arcanine froze, listening as the crashing grew louder, combined with the splintering of wood and the roaring of flames. In a panic, Redclaw realized that the fire had caused far too much damage to the building.

It was starting to collapse.

"Hurry!" Redclaw shouted, increasing his pace as he headed up the stairs.

Stormblade tried to keep up, but he didn't get far, and collapsed near the foot of the stairs.

"Stormblade, get up!" Redclaw cried, fighting the urge to run through the open doorway and find a way to freedom right then and there. Around him, several chunks of the ceiling were falling, and the floor, walls, and stairs were shaking.

Stormblade tried to stand, only to collapse again. Redclaw leaped to the top of the stairs, before turning and facing Stormblade. "It's not that far!" the arcanine shouted, "You can do it!"

Trembling, Stormblade stood up and began to stumble up the stairs, not getting very far before all his strength left him. Redclaw watched the scyther collapse, this time passing out. Fighting panic as he tried not to think about how much longer the building was going to last, Redclaw leaped down the stairs to Stormblade's side. Grabbing Stormblade's wing in his mouth, he began to drag the unconscious scyther up the stairs.

Just as he was about to reach the top, a roar louder than thunder filled his ears. The stairs beneath him broke apart and fell, and at the same time, the ceiling above crashed down on him. Redclaw felt something large and heavy strike him in the head, sending him crashing to the floor. Redclaw tightened his grip on Stormblade involuntarily, as he was knocked to the ground; he felt the scyther's wing rip and tear. He let go, and at the same time felt something strike his wounded leg and cause it to bleed more.

Before Redclaw could register what had happened, something much larger and heavier crashed into him and smashed through the floor, taking him with it. He struck something hard; he assumed it was the floor of the room below him, and felt his senses beginning to fade. Some large and heavy chunks of debris lay on top of him, immobilizing him. Glancing weakly upward, he saw the walls and the ceiling begin to collapse.

'_No…'_ he thought desperately, _'It can't end this way…'_ He looked up once more, hearing the loud crashing grow louder, and a moment later, darkness stole his thoughts away.

* * *

Thunder was wandering on her own, as the sun was beginning to set on the horizon. Her wounds made her movements stiff and painful, but she had refused to stop. In the distance, she could see large sandy colored rocks and cliffs, and close by them, a small grove of trees. That was where she was headed, as she felt too exhausted to search any further until her wounds healed a little more.

Pausing to scratch idly at her collar with her scythe, Thunder glanced at the rocky fields around her, feeling strangely weak and vulnerable, though there was no sign of any other pokémon around.

The scyther stood still, feeling lost and hopeless. She hadn't thought that being alone would ever make her uncomfortable, and she wasn't sure why it was now.

For a moment Thunder wanted to continue her journey to the trees by the cliffs, but quickly decided to rest instead. She sat at the base of a large rock, waiting for her strength to return.

It wasn't long before exhaustion overcame her, and she slowly drifted off into a fevered sleep…

…Not noticing the human who was approaching.

_To be continued..._

_(Wow, I have been so lazy with updating this. x_x I promise I'll try and do it more often so I can get caught up with posting this here-I have several more chapters finished.)_


	26. Journey Through Darkness

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 26-Journey Through Darkness**

Snowcrystal, Spark, Wildflame, and Rosie had continued walking at a slow pace. Rosie, who was trying her best not to complain, had been struggling to keep up with the others. When one of her friends asked her if she was all right, she would simply make a short reply saying she was, and continue hobbling after the others.

"Snowcrystal?" Spark asked as he limped over the grass, "Do you think we should stop and rest? I don't see why we have to keep going like this…we have no clue where to start looking for Articuno…"

Snowcrystal was about to agree that they rest when Wildflame interrupted them. "Humans are near," the houndoom stated quietly, scenting the air, "And a pokémon. We have to go…"

Fearfully, the four pokémon increased their pace, running through the tall grass without looking behind them. Up ahead, Wildflame spotted a tall group of rocks with a dark gaping hole at their base. "We can hide in that cave!" she cried, noticing that Rosie and Spark were starting to have trouble keeping up.

As soon as they reached the large grayish stones, the four pokémon darted into the cave, keeping to the shadows and huddling against the cold rock. Snowcrystal turned around, noticing drops of water trickling down the walls.

"Do you think they're poachers?" Spark asked Wildflame fearfully, distracting Snowcrystal.

"Don't know, don't care," Wildflame replied, "All humans are bad news for us, now quiet!"

Snowcrystal found her thoughts drifting back to the strange wounds Thunder had gotten from the poachers-those wounds had seemed small, but they had been very deep, and bled a lot. She hated to think of a poacher giving a pokémon a wound like that in their neck-they would die for sure.

These thoughts only worried her further, and she edged backwards into the cave, fearful the humans might walk closer and spot them.

Suddenly, without warning, a clawed paw covered her muzzle, and a thick vine looped around her neck. Snowcrystal made a strangled cry, causing the others to turn towards her.

Wildflame rushed forward, but long vines looped around her paws, bringing her crashing to the ground. Rosie and Spark were soon in the same state, other vines soon wrapping around their muzzles and silencing them. Spark's head had struck a rock, and he seemed to dazed to use any electric attacks.

Snowcrystal snapped at the paw covering her mouth, causing its owner to yelp and draw back. Struggling against the vine on her neck, she moved towards the others, hoping a fire attack could free them, when suddenly a strange, choking scent filled the air around them.

Snowcrystal coughed as the pungent fumes become stronger, and she began to feel dizzy and disoriented. She soon stumbled over her own paws, landing flat on the ground. She was tired…very tired… She tried to fight it, but her efforts seemed to be useless as she continued to breathe in the scent, and her vision started to fade. She struggled to stay awake, but a few moments later, her senses faded into blackness as the pokémon who had attacked gathered around them.

* * *

Justin stopped and stared. For a moment, if only just a split second, he had thought he had seen the white growlithe and some other pokémon running in the distance. He sighed, realizing that it could have been any other white-furred pokémon, and decided not to mention it to Katie.

They had traveled far, and not found any sign of the growlithe. Katie, however, had a new goal in mind. She had told Justin that she believed that many rare pokémon lived in the areas most trainers didn't bother to explore, and had told Justin that she planned on exploring these areas, though how far she was going to explore, Justin didn't know for sure. He was actually pleased with the idea, for it gave him a chance to make a new discovery-what if there were even other _species_ of pokémon out there just waiting to be found?

Whether there was or not, traveling here would be a lot better than having to watch Katie follow the routes, battling other trainers and winning gym badges in the cities; something he could no longer do. At least here he'd be able to be of help, as he had a lot of experience from traveling in the wilderness from when he was a trainer.

Watching Katie's shinx and poochyena happily chasing each other, Justin fingered the pokéball he always carried in his pocket. He knew he really wasn't allowed to use it on a pokémon, though he was sure the police would make an exception if he found something new or rare and made a discovery. Sometime, he hoped, they would find a very rare pokémon and he'd have a chance to use it, and if they could find the white growlithe…it would be a good target.

* * *

When Redclaw woke, he found himself in complete darkness. Dazed, he tried to move, finding himself trapped beneath large pieces of wood and metal. Feeling panicked, he pushed with his back legs against the ground, scrabbling forward until he was free. Hearing some of the pieces of wood collapse, he shuddered, but nothing else happened. Confused by the darkness, Redclaw blew a tiny flame into the air, looking at the scene around him before it flickered out.

He was in a hollow space, most likely deep within the collapsed building. A part of the wall to the left of him had held, forming the small enclosed space when the floors above him had collapsed.

Standing up, Redclaw limped around the area, feeling the walls with his nose and paws while occasionally using a small bit of flame, trying to determine if there was any way out. Finding none, he looked around the small area, alarm filling his mind as he remembered that Stormblade had fallen too.

Finding it hard to walk with all the chunks of debris on the floor, Redclaw searched for any sign of his friend, knowing he had to be nearby. After a moment, he paused as the scent of blood reached him.

Walking toward it, he found a large wooden beam that took up a big part of the enclosed space, that he hadn't given much notice to before. Following it, he came to where rubble blocked off any exit, but there was no sign of Stormblade, even though the scent of blood was strong.

Redclaw paused before starting to dig through the rubble. After pushing aside a few wooden beams, he came across an even smaller space. Stormblade was lying inside, half covered by wood or metal. Redclaw crawled in halfway, grabbing Stormblade's wing in his mouth and carefully dragging him out of the small space, before sitting beside him near the large wooden beam he had found earlier.

Stormblade's left wing was torn to shreds near the top, and Redclaw could see various other cuts and bruises along the scyther's body. He nudged Stormblade, expecting a response, but getting none. Leaning closer to Stormblade, he could hear his friend's feeble breathing. Relieved, Redclaw lay down beside him, knowing there was nothing more to do now but wait. Wait, and hope for a miracle.

As time dragged by, Redclaw stayed beside Stormblade, feeling unusually tired. Stormblade had woken up a little while ago, and had been coughing a lot, which worried Redclaw. He knew that Stormblade had breathed in the smoke and needed to get to where there was fresh air, but there seemed to be no way out unless he moved a lot of the rubble, and even then…would there even be a way out at all? Redclaw closed his eyes, trying to calm down. He was starting to get a headache, and the wounds he had gotten from the fall pained him, though luckily they weren't serious.

Stormblade was faring a lot worse; the gash on his head had started to bleed again and the pain had intensified. As he tried to rest, Redclaw got up and searched around the room yet again for a way out, like he had done before.

Wearily, Redclaw pushed against the heap of rubble that blocked one side of the small area, but it barely budged. Sighing, he walked over to Stormblade, who had started coughing again, and sat down.

"There has to be some way out of here…" Stormblade whispered weakly to Redclaw once his coughing had subsided, "I think the only way we're going to get out of here is to climb back up…"

Redclaw looked up, using the light of a small, flickering ember attack to brighten up the area. Above them, the ceiling had collapsed, and so had most of the one above it. Yet what surprised him was there was a long wooden beam leading up to what was once one of the higher floors, and there seemed to be a way they could climb further using the rubble.

"You're right…" Redclaw murmured, letting the flame die away. "The only problem is the _climbing_…" He turned to Stormblade, and though he couldn't see the scyther's face, the silence that followed his statement was enough to tell him that Stormblade was afraid…afraid he wasn't going to make it out.

Looking up at the beam, Redclaw pressed his paw against it. Leaning against the rest of the rubble, it seemed sturdy enough for him to climb, if he climbed quickly. Gripping it with his claws, the arcanine scrabbled up the pile of rubble using the beam until he reached a flat surface above, and climbed up onto it. He turned and looked down at Stormblade, softly blowing a small flame to light the scyther's way and make his climb easier.

Stormblade, doing his best to endure the pain from his many wounds, tried to climb up the beam multiple times, but each attempt failed. At last, overcome by exhaustion, he sat down, his injured wing hanging limply at his side.

Redclaw sighed and sat down, feeling hopeless. After a moment, Stormblade lifted his head and looked upward through the blackness. To Redclaw's surprise, the injured scyther struggled to his feet again, attempting to climb up the beam another time, this time sinking his scythes deeper into the wood as he climbed, helping him to climb further.

Redclaw watched him, using another small fire attack to light up the area, until Stormblade was close enough for Redclaw to help him up the rest of the way. Redclaw let Stormblade rest for a moment as he sat down again, feeling some of his hope returning-Stormblade was still weak, but it made Redclaw hopeful to know that he wasn't going to give up easily.

As they were resting, Stormblade suddenly spoke up. "Do you smell that?" he asked in a weak voice, "There's fresh air…coming from over here…"

Redclaw used yet another small fire attack to light the way as Stormblade awkwardly limped over to where a wall had collapsed, looking for any opening. Redclaw approached as Stormblade broke into a fit of coughing, and examined the collapsed wall himself.

After a few moments, he scented what Stormblade had, and realized that there was a small opening near the top of the destroyed wall, where air was coming through. Frantically digging at the rubble, he used all his strength to push the large pieces of debris out of the way, while Stormblade watched while trying to stop coughing.

After a moment, the remainder of the wall collapsed, raising a small cloud of dust. A couple pieces of the ceiling fell down, but most of the ceiling was supported by another part of the wall that was only half collapsed. Redclaw carefully peered inside the opening he had created, using the light of fire, before he helped Stormblade into it, noticing that most of the room behind the wall he'd just broken down had been completely destroyed, and there was only a small space the two could stand in.

Redclaw could still faintly smell fresh air, and walked forward, quickly realizing that it was coming from somewhere above them. Helping Stormblade climb over part of a collapsed wall and ceiling, they reached another place where an opening led them into what was once another room. Obviously the ceiling from below had collapsed, but most of the one that was now above them hadn't.

"This way," Stormblade whispered, taking a few unsteady steps forward with the aid of his scythes, "I can smell the fresh air coming from-" He stopped mid-sentence, as the ground beneath him suddenly gave way. Redclaw darted forward, grabbing Stormblade's wing in his teeth and yanking him back before he could fall through the opening.

"Careful!" The arcanine whispered to the cringing scyther, "Let me go first…"

Cautiously skirting the opening in the floor, Redclaw followed the faint scent of fresh air, soon spotting a dark opening at the base of a wall. "Through here!" he whispered, leading Stormblade toward it.

Slowly Redclaw crept inside, feeling something sharp brush against his fur as Stormblade followed, much more slowly. Several times Redclaw had to duck or move to the side if a large piece of wood or rubble was in the way. After a while of crawling over strewn debris and occasionally having to clear the way for Stormblade, Redclaw could smell the fresh air much stronger.

"I think we're getting closer!" the arcanine shouted excitedly, "Up ahead must be near where we can reach the surface!" After a short while of climbing and crawling, Redclaw could sense that they were very close to the surface. The fresh air could be smelled much clearer, and they had been climbing upwards through the destroyed building for a while.

Helping Stormblade, Redclaw walked forward, stopping when he felt a faint breeze. "This way!" he called, excited, as he made his way over the rubble-strewn floor, soon noticing a thin sliver of moonlight shining down on them through a small hole near the top of a thick wall.

Going ahead of Stormblade, Redclaw placed his front paws on the wall, peering up through the small opening. He couldn't see much through the darkness, but he could tell that even if they broke through the wall, they would have to climb over a large heap of debris that blocked the way. Telling Stormblade to back up, Redclaw studied the wall for a weak point. "Guess I'll have to make us a way out of here myself!" he told the scyther, determined, before running up and slamming his shoulder against the weakest part of the damaged wall.

* * *

Thunder woke up suddenly, feeling strangely wary and nervous. At first, she was unsure what had woken her. Then, a strange scent reached her, and she froze, recognizing it instantly. _Human… _Standing up, Thunder darted behind the rock she had been laying against, watching the human come into view. She could not see him clearly, but he didn't seem to have noticed her, as he had stopped near another rock and put something on the ground.

Why he had come here, she wasn't sure, but she stayed put, watching with interest as the human set up a trap before moving onto another spot. _This was a poacher…but what was he doing here?_

Deciding it was best to move on in case the human had a gun, Thunder slipped away into the darkness, heading for the grove of trees. For some reason, seeing the poacher had made her unsettled, but she figured that if she left, she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

However, even once she was out of immediate danger, she still felt worried, though she was unsure why. Pausing as she noticed a pidgey land on a small rock nearby, she pushed the thought from her mind. She was going to be well able to survive and learn to hunt on her own, so why worry?

Trying to keep quiet, Thunder edged closer to the pidgey, but it noticed her and flew away before she could get close enough to strike. Frustrated, she turned and ran toward the trees, deciding to try and hunt again when daylight came.

* * *

Redclaw felt the wall shake as he tackled it again, ignoring the pain that raced up his side and shoulder as he used his take down attack to damage the wall further. He could tell the wall was close to breaking, and put all his strength into the next take down. Feeling a large section of the wall crumble and break, Redclaw tumbled through the opening, landing in a heap on a pile of debris outside.

Looking up, the arcanine saw what was left standing of the damaged building shake, and noticed the wall beginning to collapse. Springing to his paws and leaping back inside, he grabbed Stormblade's uninjured wing in his jaws and pulled him through the opening, turning his head as the wall crumbled and dust filled the air.

Once it cleared, Redclaw let go of Stormblade and looked down at him. The scyther seemed a lot weaker than he had when they had been looking for a way out, and it worried him. However, he knew Stormblade only had to go a little farther.

Lifting his head, Redclaw took a deep breath of the cool night air, looking gratefully at the starry sky. At last…they were free. Free from Team Rocket, and free from the destroyed building. Redclaw sighed and took another deep breath. Fresh air had never smelled so good.

His thoughts were interrupted by Stormblade's pitiful-sounding coughing. Looking up at the large pieces of wood and metal surrounding them, Redclaw nudged the injured scyther to his feet. "It's not much farther," he told him, "We just have to climb over this…and move away from the building. Then we'll be safe."

"I want to get away…from this place…" Stormblade replied, "We need…to find Snowcrystal and the…others."

"We need to find a healer," Redclaw stated, looking over Stormblade's bandaged wounds, "Or the Pokémon Center building…though I'm not certain that's safe…and I really don't know where the city is from here."

"We're not…going to find any help…here…" Stormblade replied shakily, "But I'm not sure…how much farther I can go…"

"We should rest for a while," Redclaw said calmly, helping Stormblade along as they climbed the pile of rubble and picked their way carefully over the rocks and strewn debris, "There should be a safe place…" His voice trailed off as he noticed something in the moonlight a little ways away-a group of trees. "Let's head there," Redclaw stated, and turned to Stormblade. "Do you think you can make it?"

Stormblade nodded slowly before coughing a few times, and worriedly, Redclaw helped him begin their short journey to the small group of trees.

* * *

It didn't take long for Thunder to reach the trees, but to her disappointment, there were no streams or ponds, and no sign of prey either. The ground beneath her feet was dry, and there were hardly any plants other than the trees. Sighing in frustration, she turned and walked toward one of the larger trees, deciding to get some rest.

The snap of a twig behind her made her turn around, and she scented a pokémon, a fire type. Narrowing her eyes, she darted toward the sound, breaking through a group of small bushes and lashing out at the strange pokémon.

The fire type gave a cry of shock and stumbled backward, rubbing his paw against a stinging cut on the side of his face. Thunder stood still, realizing that this was Redclaw.

"Redclaw?" she shouted, confused, "What are you doing here? Are you being followed?"

Redclaw looked up, surprised. "Thunder?" he whispered, his shock quickly turning to relief, "You're all right! And no…we aren't…being followed…"

"We?" Thunder asked, and Redclaw noticed sadly that Thunder didn't seem to be excited or relieved to see him, or at least if she was, she wasn't showing it.

"Stormblade is here too, in the clearing behind us…but he's resting right now," Redclaw explained, "We managed to escape those humans, and now Stormblade needs to get back to the city where the good humans can help-"

"Don't bother," Thunder muttered, turning away, "The building where the humans were "helping" us is destroyed. I saw the smoke-it was burned. And you'd probably only get captured again if you went anywhere near that city again!"

Redclaw paused for a moment, before sighing and continuing, "Then we need to find a healer…or…Stormblade's friends…he said something about them, and I've seen them before. One was a white growlithe, right?"

"Yes…" Thunder replied, sounding annoyed.

"Do you know where they might be?" Redclaw asked hopefully, though he wasn't sure that she would have any idea.

Thunder sighed and pointed in an eastward direction. "They were heading that way when I was traveling with them," she explained in a dull tone, "I saw some sort of fire over that way before, but I haven't seen any smoke so I suppose the fire is gone by now. You can head that way past the city, just be careful of poachers."

"You're coming with us…right?" Redclaw asked carefully, and Thunder didn't answer. "We need to stay together," Redclaw explained, worried, "There's too much danger to wander off alone! If we find Stormblade's friends I think they can help us…we just can't stay here for long. And if you go back the way we came from, you'll only find rocky cliffs and sand…I think we should go in the direction Stormblade's friends went. Stormblade is very weak…he needs someone who can help him."

"What does _that_ have to do with me?" Thunder growled as she heard Redclaw's last statement about Stormblade, "I can't do anything to help him and if he's too weak to go on then that's his problem."

"But you have to stay with us!" Redclaw replied, "I know how to hunt, Thunder; _you_ don't!"

At this statement Thunder paused a moment and then just sighed. "Fine," she muttered, "I'll travel with you until my wounds heal and I learn how to hunt, but no longer than that."

Satisfied, Redclaw smiled. "Well, if that's what you want, that's fine. Just please don't run off when you're in no condition to travel alone." He turned and began walking back toward the trees. "Follow me," he told her, "I found a good place to rest over here."

Thunder reluctantly followed Redclaw as he led her over to a large clearing, quickly explaining everything to Stormblade, who was lying down nearby. The arcanine then walked over to where he'd managed to gather enough moss and leaves to make a nest. He gestured towards it with his muzzle, indicating that Thunder could sleep there, but she ignored him completely, flying up to a thick tree branch instead.

She lay down on the branch and looked down at Redclaw, who now lay curled up on the nest of dry leaves and moss. Thunder felt more worried now-this wasn't a good idea. She should be traveling alone, without depending on anyone…and now, she had agreed to let others help her…again.

Yet at the same time, she somehow felt glad that she wasn't alone anymore. Even though she knew it wasn't a good idea, she felt some small comfort from being near these two pokémon, however injured and weak they may be. And that thought only angered her more. _She shouldn't let them try to befriend her…_ Feeling frustrated with herself but deciding to try and forget it for now, she closed her eyes, not knowing whether to feel relieved or angry with herself about the situation.

Thunder hadn't been asleep for long when Stormblade's coughing woke her. She tried to fall back asleep, but Stormblade soon began coughing again, and she stood up. Feeling a burst of anger, she flew down from the tree and landed in front of him, glaring at him. "Stormblade…" she growled, "How am I supposed to rest if you keep waking me up?" She kicked him lightly, before pointing to some trees on the other side of the clearing. "If you're not going to stop coughing, then _leave_! Go over there where no one can hear you. I may be traveling with you for a while longer, but that doesn't mean I'm going to put up with you all the time. Now _go_!" She motioned with her scythe in the same direction.

Stormblade looked up at the other scyther in confusion, feeling too weak to stand up and leave. But with another glare from Thunder, he reluctantly staggered to his feet and painfully hobbled away toward the other clearing. "Can you go any slower?" Thunder muttered angrily under her breath as she watched him limp away, before flying back onto the tree branch and lying down again. After a while she, like Redclaw, was fast asleep.

Stormblade, however, couldn't sleep. Constantly distracted by pain and thirst, he found it hard to rest. After a while, he gave up trying, and lay down at the base of a tree away from the others, enduring the pain and waiting for morning to come.

_To be continued..._

_(Thanks for the reviews! More chapters will be posted soon!)_


	27. Captive

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 27-Captive**

Cyclone was relieved to have finally made it through the desert. As the vaporeon padded softly across the sandy earth and sparse grass of a large spacious field, he could see trees ahead, and scent water. He was surprised he'd managed to make it through that desert when he had been so weak. Yet the stone he had touched had given him new strength; he'd even been able to use his water attacks again.

And the attack he had gained from it…it was very strange indeed. And Cyclone had an idea of what it was. He had used it once-in the desert, just to try it out. When using the attack, he had felt powerful…invincible, almost. He had liked that feeling.

If this attack really was what he thought it was, then it could be just what he needed. Increasing his pace, Cyclone dashed toward the trees, reaching them quickly. Remembering the fearow he'd talked to just a short while ago, he set about looking for the tallest tree, enjoying the feeling of grass and soft earth beneath his paws after the long trek through the desert. Based on what the fearow had told him, the pokémon who could give him the answers he needed lived close by.

Spotting a very tall, thin tree with several damaged branches, Cyclone increased his pace until he reached the base of the tree, peering into a small den made between two of the roots. Reaching out with his paw, Cyclone raked his claws down one of the tree's roots, alerting the attention of the pokémon in the den.

A zigzagoon scurried out, ruffling his brown and tan fur and staring at the vaporeon. "A newcomer? Well what is it?" he asked in an annoyed tone. This pokémon seemed to be used to getting visitors. Cyclone supposed many others must visit him.

"I was told you know much about stories and legends," the vaporeon stated calmly. The zigzagoon shuddered; for some reason, he found it uncomfortable to talk to this pokémon; Cyclone spoke with such a calm and unreadable expression, it was difficult to know what the water type was thinking. Somehow, that unnerved him.

"Yes," the zigzagoon answered slowly, "I can tell you one of those legends…but I don't do it for free. Find me some berries, and _then_ you'll get your story."

Cyclone smiled ever so slightly, though his eyes remained calm and emotionless. "I have no berries," the vaporeon stated in his same smooth and quiet tone, "But I'm willing to offer you something much better. Do any humans ever come around here?"

"Humans?" the zigzagoon asked, "Uh, yes…why?"

"Do they try and capture you? Take berries or fruit from this place? Set out traps?" Cyclone asked, sitting down and wrapping his tail neatly around his paws.

The zigzagoon shifted uncomfortably. "Well," he began, not seeming to want Cyclone to know that the pokémon here had much trouble, "They've taken our food before, and there have been a few trappers, and it's a bit difficult to hide from trainers sometimes…"

"Well then," Cyclone stated quietly, "You and I both have received ill fate at the hands of humans. Do you think they can be stopped?"

The zigzagoon shrugged. "Dunno," he replied uneasily, "Humans just do what they want. I don't think there's any stopping them. It's just better for us to avoid them."

For a moment, Cyclone's eyes took on a dark tone, but he quickly regained his tranquil and indecipherable expression. "Listen," he began, "For a long time, I have thought otherwise. There used to be a great many lands uninhabited by humans, but those areas are quickly shrinking. Do you want to send a message to the humans? To tell them that these lands were ours to begin with? To tell them that pokémon aren't their servants? To tell them that they can not maim or abuse pokémon any longer?"

"Well, that would be nice but…how?" the zigzagoon asked, looking at Cyclone with a puzzled expression.

"If there was a way," Cyclone replied in a clear tone, his voice sounding calm and mysterious, "Would you?"

After a moment's hesitation, the zigzagoon nodded.

Cyclone smiled another of his faint smiles. "Then tell me…" he whispered, "About the Forbidden Attacks."

* * *

Snowcrystal was running frantically through a dark, thickly wooded forest. Branches and brambles seemed to jump out at her as she ran; causing her to stumble and fall or make her have to stop and claw her way through. This frightened her; something was chasing her, and she was trying to get away, but as she went on the branches became more thick and tangled, and she was fighting back panic as she ran. She knew not what was chasing her; she just knew that she had to get away-at all costs.

Suddenly she emerged into a quiet clearing, strangely feeling the threat of her pursuer lift. Whatever it was, it was gone, though how, she didn't know. She was staring instead at a pool of water, and around it were other pokémon. She recognized her friends among them.

Noticing Thunder and Stormblade sitting by the pool, she ran up to them, feeling relieved. She noticed that the other pokémon, the ones she didn't know, looked faded, as if they were made of nothing but shadow. She chose to ignore them, and sat beside Stormblade, who was leaning down to drink from the pool.

"Stormblade!" she cried in relief, "I'm so glad you're here, I thought you might've-" She stopped, for Stormblade had suddenly gone rigid; his eyes grew wide and he jerked away from the water and stumbled back from the pool, only to fall down on his side where he lay gasping for breath. Wondering what was wrong with him, Snowcrystal quickly turned around to ask the others for help, but surprisingly, they were gone. She and Stormblade were alone.

She turned back to the scyther, who was trembling, and seemed to be having trouble breathing. "What's wrong?" she shouted desperately, seeing that his eyes were wide with pain and his struggles seemed to be growing weaker.

"Thunder! Wildflame, Rosie, Spark!" she shouted, looking frantically around for her friends, "Something's wrong with Stormblade and I don't know what it is-" She stopped and glanced at Stormblade, who's breathing seemed to have stopped altogether. She tried to rush to his side, but sharp fangs met roughly in her scruff and pulled her away. She was released, and turned around to see Icefang, her clan's leader, looking at her sternly.

"Have you forgotten what you went on this journey for?" he growled, advancing toward her and coming to stand between her and Stormblade. Snowcrystal shook her head vigorously. "Then move on!" Icefang growled, pushing her forward and rushing after her, until she was forced to take a completely different path from the clearing; heading through the darkened forest, which seemed to be fading now, once again…

Snowcrystal's eyes opened as she awoke suddenly, then she looked around slowly, for a moment unsure of where she was. Faint starlight slanted in her eyes, and she tried to look up towards the source of the light, only to find that it was hard to move. Small vines had been tied around her paws and muzzle-not the vines like the moving ones that had caught her, but strange thin, yet strong vines that she couldn't break when she tried to struggle.

Trying to calm herself down, she moved her head in order to glance around. She was lying in a large cavern, next to a few large columns of stone reaching up to the ceiling. Near the center of the roof of the cavern was a large hole, through which moonlight was shining. She could hear whispers all around her, but at first she could not see any of her friends.

Through the darkness of the cave, shapes began to appear; the shapes of various different pokémon; all grass types, moving in and out of various cave tunnels. Two of them, an ivysaur and a young tropius, rested on rock ledges near the moonlit hole in the ceiling. Though there was a way for light to come in, at least in this cavern, it seemed odd that there would be grass types living in a cave.

A groan from behind her made her try to turn around, but was difficult to move. She craned her head backward, noticing Spark's spiky yellow pelt close behind her.

"Spark!" she whispered, finding it hard to speak with the vine around her snout, "Are you awake?"

Spark painfully turned his head toward her, glancing around the cave in confusion. "Where are we?" he asked, his voice sounding muffled because of the vine around his own muzzle.

"I don't know," Snowcrystal replied quietly, "Deeper in the cave, I guess. These grass pokémon must have took us here…"

"Well of course they did!" Spark growled, looking around, "Watch me give them a little surprise…cover your eyes, Snowcrystal!"

At first Snowcrystal was confused at his request, but immediately placed her paws over her eyes as hundreds of small, thin spines shot out of Sparks pelt and toward the grass pokémon. Several of them struck her, and she whimpered slightly. However, a moment later, and it was over.

None of the grass types had cried out, but the ivysaur and young tropius glared at them, and so did a small oddish who had just entered the cave. Spark gave them a threatening growl, his fur crackling as he readied an electric attack.

Snowcrystal knew that the attack wouldn't do much good against these strong-looking grass types, but she couldn't attack, so it was their only way of fighting back. She wished she knew where the others were.

With surprising speed, the ivysaur lashed out with one of its vines, striking Spark across the face and causing him to skid backwards a few feet. The jolteon turned his head toward the grass type and growled again.

Snowcrystal cringed; they weren't going to get anywhere by fighting while they were tied up; maybe this was all a misunderstanding. If they had trespassed in the grass types' cave, it had been an accident, and she knew it wouldn't hurt to try and explain.

"Please listen to us!" Snowcrystal cried from between clenched teeth, "We didn't know this was your cave-we'll leave, just let us and our friends go!"

"Quiet!" snapped the young tropius, "We know that you're either spies, or you were planning to attack us-a foolish move I might add."

"Are you _insane_?" Spark snarled angrily, "We came into the cave to hide from humans, you can have the stupid cave-we just want to get out of here!"

"You're lying!" the tropius shouted, but the ivysaur interrupted him.

"Wait a minute," he said quietly, "It _does_ seem strange that they had an electric type with them, and this is certainly the first _white_ growlithe I've seen. Besides, they don't seem to know what we're talking about…"

"Yeah," Spark agreed, "What _are_ you talking about?"

"Shut up!" the tropius yelled, "They're probably just trying to trick us," he added with a glance at the ivysaur, "They're some of those fire pokémon that took our land and forced us to live in this filthy cave! We barely have any food and it's all because of them!"

"Calm down," the ivysaur replied impatiently, "It's very possible that this could be a trick…_but_…" he added, seeing that Spark was about to protest, "We should talk this over with the others first before we decide on what to do with them."

The tropius nodded reluctantly and followed the ivysaur through a tunnel and out of the cavern. A moment later, a bayleef appeared, followed by Wildflame and Rosie, who was limping. Neither of them had any vines tied around them, but they both seemed fearful of attacking. "Stay here with the others," the bayleef ordered them, and left the cavern.

Wildflame quickly broke the vines from around Spark and Snowcrystal's paws and snouts, and the two stood up, looking relieved.

"Wildflame…" Snowcrystal began, "Do you know why they're keeping us here? We heard they-"

"Yes," Wildflame replied, "Apparently there's a group of fire pokémon who drove these grass types out of their home…" Snowcrystal remembered the cool streams and lush grass they had passed through before; maybe that had been where the grass types' home had been.

"And since we're fire types," Wildflame continued, "They think we're some of the ones who drove them out…" Her gaze drifted to the hole in the cave ceiling. "Do you think there's a way we can climb up there?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Snowcrystal said quietly, "Those ledges look too high up for me to climb…and I had to climb plenty of times back at the mountain. I think the grass types use vine whip to pull themselves up or something…and that tropius can fly…I don't really know how we'd get up there…"

"I think it's ridiculous that they think we're responsible for what some wild fire types did!" Spark growled, "Can't they realize a white growlithe wouldn't live around here?"

"They think we've been sent here as spies," Rosie whispered, and Snowcrystal could see pain in the ninetales's expression; her leg must be hurting badly. "They see you and Snowcrystal…and me as well, because I'm injured, as just a way to get them to think that we're not trying to trick them…" She shrugged. "I'm not sure how we're going to convince them otherwise…" she mumbled.

For a little while more they talked quietly amongst themselves, and then the ivysaur and tropius returned. "We've made a decision," the ivysaur stated, sitting calmly in front of them, "Attack us, and you'll regret it. I don't think you want to deal with poisonpowder." Rosie and Spark cast nervous glances at each other and then looked back at the ivysaur as he continued, "It is entirely possible that you could be travelers passing through, and it's also entirely possible that you could be spies or attackers. I'm afraid we can't just let you leave unless we have proof of your innocence…and to prove that," he added, "We have decided that you will help us battle the fire pokémon and reclaim our home."

"_What_?" Rosie cried, outraged, "That's not fair-this isn't our fight! It doesn't concern us at all! And how exactly am I supposed to fight in a battle with my leg damaged like this?"

"Quiet!" hissed the tropius, "He's giving you a simple choice; help us fight the battle in a few days…or rot in this cave." He narrowed his eyes angrily, before finishing, "It's your choice. I'd choose wisely if I were you."

* * *

Stormblade wished that morning would come. Even though he knew he would have to travel again, he was desperate for the long night to be over. He knew there was no way he'd be able to sleep, not when he was in so much pain, and he felt miserable and alone. Sitting up painfully, he began slowly sharpening his scythes, hoping that the simple action would be some distraction from the pain he was feeling.

The sudden snap of a twig somewhere behind him caused him to turn, and to his surprise, he noticed Thunder limping through the clearing on the other side of the trees, obviously not noticing him.

"Thunder?" he whispered quietly, but he didn't receive an answer. Worried, he stood up slowly, using the nearest tree for support. He sat down as he began coughing again, and waited for it to subside before staggering upright and slowly following Thunder.

He tried to keep as quiet as possible, though it was hard when he kept stumbling. However, Thunder never turned or noticed him; she seemed too distracted. Stormblade almost felt that he could have made as much noise as possible and she still wouldn't have turned around.

He increased his pace as much as he could, getting closer until he could see Thunder clearly. One thing that both surprised and worried him more was that she was stumbling…limping…almost as badly as he was, not bothering to hide her pain. Every few steps she would let out a gasp or a small whimper, and sometimes pausing to struggle for breath and quietly mutter words that Stormblade couldn't hear. This was so unusual and surprising that he stopped suddenly, wondering if he should ask Redclaw, that arcanine who had saved him, for help.

Only too late did he realize that he'd paused too long. Giving no sign or warning, Thunder whirled around, an enraged look in her eyes which made Stormblade realize that she really had only just noticed him. Before he could move, Thunder raced toward him, lashing out at him.

Stormblade felt the dull side of the other scyther's blade slam into his uninjured leg, knocking him off balance and causing him to fall flat on his back…which due to his burns, hurt. Thunder stood over him, placing her foot firmly on his chest to hold him down and raising her scythes above him.

However, Stormblade could tell that she didn't intend to attack him. She was just angry, and that anger was quickly fading away to be replaced with annoyance.

"Why are you following me?" Thunder asked, regaining some of her calm though she did not let Stormblade up.

"I…I was…" Stormblade rasped, "Just trying…to see if you were all right…" He wasn't sure how Thunder would react to this statement, as she had never seemed to approve of him being concerned about her.

Thunder narrowed her eyes, and Stormblade noticed that she was standing firmly again, nearly all traces of pain gone from her expression. "I'm fine," she spat, "I always was. There's no need for you to follow me around!" She pressed her foot down harder, and Stormblade winced.

"I'm sorry…" Stormblade replied weakly, not knowing what else to say. To his relief, Thunder backed away from him, allowing him to sit up. He looked up at her, suddenly realizing with shock that crimson blood was slowly flowing from the gunshot wound in her side. The wound hadn't been bleeding that badly before, except for when she had first gotten it. "Your wound!" he gasped, "Are you-"

"SHUT UP!" Thunder yelled, her anger coming back, "I came here to be _alone_. Alone. I thought you'd at _least_ have the decency to let me be by myself for once without having to come and follow me. I'm just fine alright! And there's no way you could help me anyway."

"How do you know?" Stormblade replied, "I'm your friend…I _want_ to help you."

Thunder stiffened at the mention of the word 'friend' and glared at him. "You can't even help yourself," she retorted, "You're helpless and weak. There's nothing you could do."

Stormblade remained silent for a moment, confused over Thunder's last statement. Maybe it had just been his imagination, but it almost seemed like, for once, she wanted help…she just didn't think anyone _could_ help her. "Well…" he began hesitantly, pausing when he had to cough, "It seemed like something was bothering you…and not just your wounds and I-"

He didn't have time to finish, as Thunder interrupted him, completely changing the subject. "Why on earth do you still have those bandages on?" she asked in an annoyed tone, "Everyone who sees you can see that you've let humans…_willingly_ let humans try to 'help' you. It shows how weak you are. You would never survive as one of Master's pokémon…ever."

Stormblade was about to make an angry reply, but stopped himself just in time. Instead, he just muttered, "I don't want my wounds to get infected any worse than they already are." He turned his gaze away from her, staring at the ground instead. It was hard to think clearly through all the pain, and he was beginning to regret following Thunder. He was surprised that she hadn't tried to drive him away yet.

Thunder didn't reply to his statement, and turned away from him, leaning against a tree for support. Stormblade could tell that she was leaning rather heavily against it, looking as if she could collapse any moment. He knew now that her tough attitude was just an act…and he wasn't sure she could keep it up.

"Look," Stormblade told her, "I just want to help…but if you want me to leave, I will…but…I do want to talk to you…" He was aware of Thunder glaring at him, but she said nothing, so he hesitantly continued, "You know…you don't have to hide the fact that you're in pain. It's not a weakness…and if you let others help you, it'll be a lot easier to bear."

For a moment Thunder looked furious, obviously angry with the fact that he could tell that she was hiding her 'weakness', but to his surprise, she seemed to calm down after he finished speaking. "How?" she asked curiously, "If a pokémon is in pain…another pokémon can't just simply take that pain away. They'd be wasting their time trying to help."

Stormblade wasn't sure how to reply. He was still surprised Thunder hadn't run away or forced him to leave yet. He wondered if she was just listening to him because she needed a way to pass the time. As he was about to speak, Thunder interrupted him.

"You aren't a healer," she told him, "So you can't help me…not that I really need a healer anyway. I survived most of my wounds on my own. Master only ever treated the injuries of his pokémon if they were serious or they got infected. I've lived through worse than this. I'll be just _fine_…" She emphasized the last word with a growl, digging her claws angrily into the dry earth at the same time.

Stormblade decided that he shouldn't press the matter further. "Do you want me to leave?" he asked sadly, leaning against the tree and getting ready to stand up.

Strangely, Thunder just shrugged. "I don't care," she stated crossly.

Stormblade stayed where he was, not replying. He really didn't feel strong enough to walk all the way back to where he'd been resting. Though he knew it was really only a relatively short distance he felt too weak to stand up and walk back, and he felt dizzy from pain. Remembering what Thunder had mentioned about her 'Master', Stormblade sighed and told her, "I think I understand…at least a little…about what your master did to you, and what it was like. I mean, Justin never _injured_ me, but well…he wasn't exactly the best trainer."

"So you think you understand?" Thunder asked, sounding more amused than angry. She watched him through slightly narrowed eyes, though she seemed curious about what his response would be.

"Well…you see," Stormblade began, "When Justin captured me…I had been…separated…from my swarm. I was lost and had recently been in a fight. I was injured, but not seriously. I had been wandering through the forest aimlessly when Justin appeared. He was very frightened, and sent his jolteon, Spark, to attack me. We fought, and I was winning. Spark scarcely had the energy to dodge my blows and Justin could see that he was going to get hurt, so he threw a pokéball at me while I was distracted to give Spark time to get out of range and catch his breath, but…he didn't expect the pokéball to actually _capture_ me."

"He caught you the first time he threw a pokéball?" Thunder asked, coming as close to smiling as Stormblade had ever seen her, "That's pathetic."

"I was weak from the fight…" Stormblade muttered, looking at the ground. At first he felt angry, but then he realized that Thunder hadn't tried to silence him and she still wasn't making him go away. Whether it was just for amusement or not, it seemed as if Thunder really _wanted_ someone to talk to right now. Deciding to forget her last comment, he continued, "I was confused at being captured, but even while in the pokéball I could hear a little of what Justin was saying. He hadn't wanted to capture me. He didn't want a scyther, and he wanted to get rid of me, but he was afraid to release me because he thought I might attack him.

"I found out later that he was going to tie my pokéball to a rock and just drop it into a river, but he didn't. He realized that I was a good fighter after my battle with Spark, and chose to keep me, because most of his other pokémon weren't as skilled in battle as I was. But that was all he cared about-other than that I meant nothing to him. He was always _afraid_ of me, and he never got over that fear…I suppose it's even worse now…

"That fear stopped him from ever trying to get to know me like he did with his other pokémon. I was often made to stay in my pokéball, not getting to eat as much as the other pokémon did…he neglected me most of the time, though I know he didn't always mean to.

"After a long time, Justin went back to his house during the winter time and let me out in the snow. I tried to find shelter and ended up finding a hurt human and trying to protect her from a luxray…but by the time the other humans had found her, she had died, and they thought I was the one who killed her. Justin was made to release me and Spark and the others, and he got his trainer's license taken away…"

"What's a trainer's license?" Thunder asked curiously.

"It's what all trainers have to have to own pokémon," Stormblade told her, "It's like a small card or something. If a trainer shows up at a Pokémon Center without one, they can get in big trouble."

"Hm…" Thunder muttered to herself, "Master didn't have one."

Stormblade wasn't sure what to say, so he went on, "Not many days ago, soon after Rosie was captured…" He gave a sad sigh and continued, "I went looking for water during a rainstorm because I knew I couldn't make it to a stream by myself with these injuries. I heard a human coming and quickly ran into a cave. That human was Justin…and there was another human there…it must have been his friend.

"The female human wanted to help me but didn't have the right medicine. Justin was afraid and threw rocks at me, but he didn't recognize me. His friend wanted to take me somewhere where I could get food and help, despite the fact that Justin didn't want her to. However…Justin somehow found out who I was. He made the other human go out of the cave and told her that I was a murderer…"

"I suppose it makes no difference," he sighed, "Those Team Rocket humans would still have invaded the Pokémon Center and I would have gotten captured anyway. I'm just glad Redclaw was able to help me get out of that building..."

Thunder didn't ask what Team Rocket was, but she looked confused…and a little angry, after Stormblade finished speaking. "So that's it?" she asked, sounding un-amused, "That's your oh-so-horrible trainer story?"

"Well…" Stormblade began, "I thought…"

"Your trainer was nothing but a cowardly weakling!" Thunder growled, "And you felt bad about the way he treated you? What did he do? Forget to feed you for a few days? Leave you out in the cold for a couple of hours? Is that _all_?"

"I just…" Stormblade replied quietly, "I just wanted you to know that I went through some of the same things you did…of course not _everything_, but I understand what you had to go through."

"You're far from understanding…" Thunder stated coldly, and her dark blue eyes narrowed, "You're complaining about a trainer who was a forgetful coward, but nothing more. I don't see how this has anything to do with me or how it's supposed to make you 'understand'."

"I'd understand if you told me…" Stormblade replied slowly.

"Told you what?" Thunder replied, seeming annoyed and almost angry again.

"About your trainer," Stormblade told her, "What he did to you…maybe if you told me, I could understand better."

"What's there to understand?" Thunder asked, "If you want to know about Master, ask Redclaw. He knows too."

Stormblade hesitated for a moment, before replying, "Redclaw wasn't your master's pokémon for as long as you were…was he?"

The question caught Thunder by surprise, but she just muttered, "You're right. He wasn't."

Stormblade paused a moment before asking, "How long were you owned by your master?"

Thunder stiffened and gave him an angry glare; Stormblade wondered if asking her these questions had really been a good idea after all, and she merely hissed at him, "Why do you want to know? And more importantly, why do you _care_?"

Stormblade wasn't sure how to answer. He didn't feel like she would understand if he tried to tell her that it was because he wanted to help; she hadn't responded kindly to him when he had said that before. Pain was still filling his mind, making it hard for him to think. He wished it would go away…for only a few seconds, so he could think of what to say. "Because I don't want you to be hurt," he managed at last, "I want to know if there is some way I can help you…and I think if you told me about your trainer, I would understand better, and maybe find a way."

Thunder remained silent, staring at Stormblade with a mixture of confusion and uncertainty. However, she had to admit, she wasn't entirely sure she disliked the idea, though she was still hesitant. "What good would that do?" she asked, but there was no snarl or growl to her voice this time.

"You said I didn't understand," Stormblade replied, "Well…I _want_ to understand." He reached out with his scythe and lightly touched the side of it to Thunder's, but she jerked her arm away as if he had burned her.

"Why?" she asked, "All I'd be telling you about is events in the past… memories that don't matter anymore."

"But they do matter," Stormblade told her, "If they can help me understand and be able to help you, they do. You can tell me about it now…there's no reason to worry. I only want to help you."

Thunder hesitated, not liking the way Stormblade seemed to imply that she was worried. There was no reason she should be, after all. Stormblade was the one who was worried, and worried for no real reason. She wondered if it was even worth listening to him anymore…

Yet the way he had spoken to her, he had seemed so sincere, and so willing to listen to her, for the sole purpose of trying to help. She wasn't sure any other pokémon would ever be willing to do that. The others she had traveled with hadn't wanted to put up with her after a while, and had left her well alone for the most part, and she had wanted it that way. But now…she wasn't as sure.

And she wasn't sure she _wanted_ to share her memories either, but she felt that if she didn't now, there might never be a time again when someone would willingly want to help her. And besides, the memories were just thoughts of the past…they didn't matter now in the present. They were long since over. _'If the memories don't matter anymore…' _she thought to herself, _'Then there's no reason _not_ to share them…'_

"Fine," she muttered, crossing her blades and fixing her gaze on Stormblade, "What do you want to know?"

"Well…when…and how, did you get caught by 'Master'?" Stormblade asked calmly, and feeling the pain of his injuries start to get worse, he slowly lay down on the dry ground and watched her.

Thunder sighed impatiently, as if she was annoyed already and just wanted to get the whole thing over with, but nevertheless, she answered his question. Surprisingly, her answer was much longer than Stormblade had expected.

"It was a long time ago," she began, speaking calmly, "I was very young and small…my wings had not yet grown enough to carry me in flight, and my blades were not sharp enough to inflict any bad injuries. I was somewhere in a forest, and I had a bad wound in my head. I couldn't remember anything, but I was probably too young to remember much anyway. There was another scyther there, a small male, even younger than I was. He could have been my brother…I never knew. We were both injured, but he was worse off. He was missing two of his wings, and one of his scythes was broken in half. He also had a lot of deep cuts in his back. Whatever had happened, it certainly hadn't gone well for him, whoever he was.

"I didn't know what had happened to us, and he wouldn't talk…or couldn't talk. We stayed there in the forest, and for some reason I tried to take care of him. I couldn't, really, but I still tried. I did not know how to hunt so we went hungry for a while.

"Then a few days later, a human showed up, with a cyndaquil. I didn't know what a human was at the time, but I could tell that him coming there wasn't a good thing. He didn't see us as a threat and he picked me up. I cut him, and he made his cyndaquil attack me. After that, he took us in a human vehicle and away from the forest.

"We got taken in some building and put together in a cage. We were left there for a little while, sometimes given food that tasted strange. I think that other scyther was the only reason I got through the first few days…I was scared then. The room and the cage were cold, so we huddled together most of the time.

"After a while that human…Master, came back. He took me out of the cage for a moment and said something to Volco, his cyndaquil. He caught me in a pokéball but didn't want me to stay inside it, so he let me out and then put me back in the cage. Then he took the other scyther out.

"He must have decided that that scyther was too weak, so he ordered Volco to kill him. He did it right in front of me…" Thunder paused for a moment and turned away, and Stormblade could see a spark of anger in her eyes, but she remained calm, though her voice was a little shaky.

"I realized later that Master never wanted to bother training him. He knew his injuries were too bad, and he'd never make it through the training. He kept me, though he didn't think I would be very strong at first." She shrugged and turned back to Stormblade. "That's it," she stated simply, "Don't know how this is supposed to help you or me, but you have your answer. Happy now?"

Stormblade looked both shocked and horrified. "Why would your trainer kill one of his own pokémon?" he blurted out, "How could he do something like that? Why did he even take that other scyther from the forest if he was just going to-"

"You said you wanted to know about Master?" Thunder asked suddenly, interrupting Stormblade and fixing a piercing gaze on him. Now that she had told him a little about her trainer, she seemed willing to tell him more, and Stormblade wasn't sure he knew why.

"Well then listen," Thunder continued, and some of her anger faded. She wasn't exactly certain why she wanted to tell him this, but she had nothing to loose, and it wouldn't matter to her if Stormblade told anyone. Maybe telling him about Master would be a good thing, after all. Maybe he would finally leave her alone after this. She leaned closer to Stormblade, speaking more quietly this time, as if trying to make sure that her voice wouldn't wake Redclaw up. Speaking in a calm voice once again, she began.

"You see," Thunder told him, "Master wasn't a trainer like yours was. Yes, I've heard of trainers before…and I'd never trust one, but Master was worse. He fought pokémon for money, and got a lot of money from it. Humans would make bets during the battles. Master's pokémon won lots of times. Humans mostly bet on him.

"Master caught most of his own pokémon. He usually didn't buy them from others…well he did sometimes, but not often. He usually caught young pokémon. I think he wanted to train them early. He caught pokémon all the time. He would bring them back and put them in cages for a few days, then later make them wear a collar and chain them up. He didn't keep them in pokéballs unless he was taking them somewhere. Master had older pokémon, ones he had trained a long while, but I didn't see them very often. I was mostly in a cage in one of the many buildings Master had to put us in, or chained up outside. I was usually around other small pokémon when I was little.

"Master had a way of training his pokémon. He caught a great many of them, and found the strongest by process of elimination. To put it simply, he put us through constant training, day after day, and those who didn't survive, were simply just too weak. Most of them died, but Master didn't care. He had a lot of pokémon, and only the strongest mattered to him.

"The only one who never had any training was Volco. He was the only pokémon Master was kind to, and Volco greatly adored and respected Master. I always hated Volco…despised him. He would often taunt me with food, insult me…stupid things like that. That didn't really matter, but Volco got to punish me with fire attacks sometimes. It was never enough to seriously injure me; it was just to cause pain. The wounds usually healed fast.

"Like the others I got trained from when I was little. There was what he called the 'usual training', the battles, the attack practice. I got hurt a lot, but it usually wasn't so bad. The other training was worse. Master wanted pokémon who could fight while enduring great pain. So he trained his pokémon to do that. He would well, torture us.

"I think he believed that if we got used to such pain, any pain we felt on the battlefield would be insignificant in comparison to it. He did that lots of times, just causing me pain so I could get used it, so I could have better endurance. He started out by just giving me small jolts of electricity when I was little, but it got worse as I got older. It got a lot worse.

"Before I had done enough training to be put in a real fight, I would get put in practice ones, against another of Master's pokémon, usually one he didn't consider very valuable, one that had survived but that didn't handle the training well. If I fought well against that pokémon, Master would have me fight two. If I got hurt, he said it was just to make me stronger. I couldn't stop battling because Master always had Volco around him and he would use some fire attack on me, plus Master had a device that would electrocute me if I stopped. I sometimes passed out from this, and only got punished later. I learned that it was better to just obey him. He would be able to make me do what he wanted later anyway, and I got food if I obeyed him the first time."

At this moment, Thunder paused, but Stormblade didn't want to interrupt her, and after a moment she went on.

"At first…" she began, and Stormblade thought he detected a hint of sadness in her voice, "I tried to make it through everything by asking for help from some of the other young pokémon there. They would give me food sometimes if I didn't get any, and I gave them some of my food sometimes too. We were always trying to help each other, and I became close to some of them, but…the ones I befriended eventually died. They didn't make it through the training. I had to watch some of them die. It used to horrify me whenever one of them was killed.

"As time went on I saw more pokémon die…but after I'd seen a large number of them pass away and become distraught after each one, even if I hadn't known them, the other pokémon started telling me to just forget it and move on. And after a while…after a time of seeing more and more deaths…I started to listen. They told me there was no point; that it didn't matter…that this was just the way things were. And in time…I stopped caring.

"I kept being trained by Master with the other pokémon, being repeatedly told these things, and I believed them. It was all I was ever told. I no longer cared if someone else was hurt or killed; all that mattered to me was surviving the day, proving myself tough enough so that I could become one of Master's stronger pokémon, so I would not have to go through torture anymore. When I was old enough and Master was satisfied that I was strong enough, he began putting me in real fights."

At this moment Thunder paused again, staring around the grove of trees briefly before continuing. When she did, she had regained her calm and almost emotionless voice again.

"The fighting areas he brought me to were strange. They didn't look like the ones we practiced in. They were usually in a big building, or outside. Lots of humans always came to watch. There were others like Master, too. They would bring a strong pokémon, and me or one of Master's other pokémon would battle them. Master and the other human would release their pokémon into an enclosed area or sometimes a deep pit, which had something like a cage over the top so we couldn't fly or climb out. I think the humans were afraid we would attack them.

"I never tried though. I only wanted to win so Master would be happy with me. When he was happy, he treated me better. Master would starve me before these fights, not for too long, only a few days, but enough to make me want to win. If I did win, he gave me food as a reward. In most of these fights I just had to make the other pokémon faint, and it took a long time; they didn't faint easily, and it was usually only after they had lost a lot of blood. But I was used to fighting, so most of these battles were easy enough.

"But there were some that were far worse. Not many humans made their pokémon battle in these fights. But Master did. He knew he was taking a risk by entering one of us because of all the time he spent training me and the other pokémon he used. We had won a lot of fights and he had gotten a lot of money, but he took this risk so he could get more money. In these fights though, pokémon fought to the death. Sometimes there were a lot of us in the arena at once; other times there were just two. Either way, there was only one, simple, rule. To win, you had to be the last one alive.

"I never wanted to kill my opponents, at first, but he made me do it so many times it started to feel like the natural thing to do. These battles were much fiercer-pokémon were fighting to stay alive-they were desperate, but I was trained to ignore pain and keep fighting regardless of any injuries I sustained. I almost always came out of these battles badly hurt.

"Later, Master would treat my wounds himself. Unlike the other humans, from what I knew of them, he would do it while I was conscious. Even though I was chained he knew I could still attack him, but I never did. He knew I wouldn't. He would not give me any medicine for the pain, but he would give me some food while he did it, but only a little. I didn't injure him, because I knew I wouldn't get any more food if I did. And I couldn't kill him; I would starve to death if I did because I was chained, and no one would be there to bring me food. And he knew that.

"I believe Master was looked up to by the other humans who trained battle pokémon. I think they admired the way he could always keep himself in control, and that he showed no fear of his pokémon. I once saw a human who was whipping his pokémon after a battle, and he lost control of the pokémon and it nearly killed him. Aside from him and a few others, the other humans didn't dare try to use whips on their pokémon, but Master did.

"I think the only reason he used a whip was because he wanted to show that he could do it. To prove to other humans that he could do it and his pokémon wouldn't turn on him. To show that he was in control." Thunder turned away from Stormblade and focused on a single star shining in the night sky, seeming lost in thought, though she still looked calm.

"After a while," she continued, though she seemed tired of talking, "The fights stopped. I think other humans made the fights stop. Master couldn't go to the buildings anymore. For a while Master didn't try to find any new places to battle other humans, though I knew it was bound to start again sooner or later. He kept training me though… I was special to him. Not 'special' like Volco was special, but I was an excellent fighter in his eyes…I won him a lot of money, so I was valuable. He did not torture me all that often, though he did tell a pokémon to attack me or else use the whip on me when I lost a practice battle or did something to displease him. I was used to it.

"He still often brought in new pokémon, but he did not torture them; or if he did, it was very rarely. He seemed to be satisfied with me and the others who'd gone through the torture-training, and wasn't so harsh on the newer and younger pokémon, like Redclaw. Master usually just chained me up every day and left me, except for when he put me in a practice battle. Then there was that one night when you found me, and after you set me free I flew into the forest and wandered around for a while until I found you and the others again." She stopped for a moment and thought of something else, "That typhlosion you battled, the one I was fighting after I left you and the rest of the group; that was Volco. The human there…that was Master." She turned toward Stormblade again and waited for his response, wondering whether she would be angry or amused by his response.

Stormblade was hardly sure what to think. He was angry and shocked by what Thunder's trainer had done to her, and surprised too-he had known that Thunder had been abused, but he'd never known the full story…the extent of it. He wanted to help her now, more than anything, but he wasn't sure he knew how. He could scarcely believe what Thunder's master had done. This human had ruined Thunder's life, and all for the sake of money. Stormblade knew that if he himself had been put through the same thing Thunder had, he would most certainly have died. Thunder had gone through so much pain…even his own wounds seemed like nothing in comparison.

"Thunder…" he began, and the other scyther looked at him, unsure if he really believed her or if he actually thought he could help her by knowing about Master. "I'm sorry…" Stormblade whispered quietly, seeming unsure of what else to say, "I'm sorry for everything you had to go through."

'_Why?'_ thought Thunder, _'You didn't do it…'_ She then realized that Stormblade had said a lot of other confusing things already, and didn't bother to question him.

"I hate Master…" she growled before Stormblade could say anything more, "If I ever find him again, I'll kill him!" She spoke with a ferocity that surprised Stormblade, and there was a deadly gleam in her eyes. She wasn't looking at Stormblade; in fact, she almost seemed to have forgotten that he was there.

"I…I think I understand now…" Stormblade said quietly, attracting Thunder's attention once again. His voice shook, but he continued, "I mean…I still probably don't, but I understand better now. I'm sorry…I should have tried to help you more before. I wanted to…I was just never sure how. I'm not even sure what I can do now… But at least it's over now…you don't have to worry about Master or Volco or any of them anymore."

Thunder just stared at him, not knowing what to think. She wasn't sure whether to make an angry reply or to just leave. It felt better to have talked about Master; she was calmer now-why was Stormblade acting as if everything was worse? She felt like telling him she was fine, that she didn't need his help and that she could manage on her own. She felt like telling him to leave so she could go back to sleep, and worry about all this later. But she didn't.

"It's not over," she replied quietly, causing Stormblade to look up at her in surprise. She hadn't wanted to confess any weakness to anyone, but somehow telling him this now seemed like the right thing to do. "Back when I fought the vespiquen…and Volco…I lost control…I was ready to kill both of them…I _would_ have killed both of them. When I left Master, I thought the same thing you did…that I could start over and forget about it, but I can't…it isn't over…and it won't ever be…" She stared silently at the ground, and didn't even move when Stormblade limped closer to her.

"Don't worry," he told her softly, touching the tip of his blade lightly to her shoulder. Thunder stiffened at the touch but this time she didn't move away. "Back then, when you were Master's pokémon…" Stormblade said quietly, "No one was ever really able to help you. But you're not in this alone anymore. I'll find a way to help you somehow."

Until then Thunder had still been staring at the ground, but now she looked up at Stormblade. She could not understand what compelled him to want to help her so much; her problems had nothing to do with him, and he had enough of his own. She thought it was silly of him, but at the same time, she had to admit to herself…she didn't want to be alone. She had never wanted to be.

"I have to stay around Redclaw for a while anyways," Thunder said softly, "I don't know how to hunt. I'm not used to being wild."

"I'm sure Redclaw would like to teach you," Stormblade said, smiling a little, "I know he cares about you. I'm sure he'll be a good teacher."

"Can he hunt like a scyther?" Thunder asked, looking doubtful.

"No," Stormblade replied, "But he can show you the basics. I can help teach you how, but I won't be able to show you. You can fight well, though; I'm sure hunting will come easy for you."

"Is it hard at first?" questioned Thunder, giving Stormblade another curious look.

"A little," Stormblade answered, "But it gets easier. Once you see how it's done, you should get the idea."

For a while the two of them talked, sitting beside the trees listening to the soft calm winds and breathing in the cool night air. Thunder didn't see any real importance in their conversation, but it had been a long while since she had been able to talk to a pokémon-about anything-without getting angry or upset. For the first time in a long while, she felt somewhat at peace... Somewhat.

Stormblade was taken by surprise when Thunder suddenly stood up, a look that was almost anger in her eyes. "This is pointless!" she snapped, though it seemed to him as if it almost pained her to say this, "All we're doing is wasting time. I don't see how I honestly thought you could help me. Are you a healer? No. Can _you_ hunt? No. I don't see why you insist on sitting here, wasting time, when we _should_ be resting! And all you're trying to do is falsely make me believe that you're going to help me. You're_ pathetic_!"

She narrowed her eyes, then turned and stalked away. Casting a glance over her shoulder, she sneered, "Better get some rest…we're going to travel tomorrow. And I don't want you slowing us down-if you do, I'll make Redclaw _drag_ you the whole way. But then again, that would be interesting to see…"

Before Stormblade could call out to stop her, Thunder had dashed off, leaving him behind and heading back to the tree that she had been sleeping in before. Stormblade lay down miserably on the ground, feeling confused and helpless. Why had she suddenly reacted that way when before she had been calm enough around him? What she said hadn't even made sense, considering that she had been talking to him peacefully before. What had he done to make her act that way? Why was she so upset with him?

Stormblade felt too weak to walk back to the nest Redclaw had made for him, so instead he curled up on the ground beside the tree he and Thunder had been sitting by before. He'd wanted to help Thunder, show her she wasn't alone-and for a while, it had seemed like it had worked. But now, he couldn't help but feel…as if he had just made everything worse.

* * *

Thunder feebly slashed away a branch that hung in her way, as she slowly walked back toward the tree near where Redclaw was sleeping. Truthfully, she had wanted to be friends…she really had. Yet she knew she couldn't; it would only hurt her in the end, and she wasn't sure she could face that sort of pain again.

When she had been small, she had always looked to other pokémon for support and even friendship in order to help make it through all of Master's tests. But after she had to watch each of them, one by one, fail those tests and die, she had made a point of not getting to know the other pokémon too well. In the long run, making friends had never helped. Only caused her pain she didn't need. She wished she had never tried to help that young scyther in the forest; never grown close to him. It would have been better.

Thunder stopped herself, quickly reminding herself that all that was in the past. She had made mistakes, but she would learn from her mistakes. She wouldn't talk to Stormblade anymore. She wouldn't let him try to get close to her. She would make him leave her alone, make him hate her if she had to, but she had to get him to realize that they were not friends. They couldn't be.

Thunder's thoughts wandered back to Snowcrystal and the others she had traveled with. She had tried to help them sometimes, even when she wasn't sure why herself. And where had it brought her? Briefly, Thunder remembered trying to help free Rosie, and glanced at the bullet wounds in her side and shoulder. _It had gotten her nowhere._

And out of all the pokémon she could possibly trust, Stormblade was the last one she should try to befriend. He was injured, and by a cursed attack that gave him wounds that would never heal; wounds that would just get infected worse and worse and never get better. There was no way he would survive that…

And when she had to watch him die, she didn't want to care.

* * *

As the moon glistened silently overhead, the wreckage of Team Rocket's secret base lay forlorn and silent. Wind echoed sadly through the area, moving small bits of rubbish across the sandy ground.

Suddenly a bluish glow surrounded a large chunk of debris and lifted it into the air before tossing it away into the rubble. From a pile of twisted metal and splintered wood, Solus painfully hauled himself onto firm ground; picking his way over the wreckage before collapsing in the dust near the ruined building.

He had been abandoned…forgotten… The Rockets who had the chance had teleported away using their abra at the sound of the explosions, but Solus hadn't been around them, and no one had come looking. Dust and traces of blood stained the espeon's fur, and he gave it a few quick licks, smoothing it out and cleaning some of the small cuts he'd received. The wounds the scyther had inflicted still stung, but he left them alone.

Still feeling outraged, Solus stood up and limped away, hardly giving the Rocket's building a second glance. He had no way of locating his trainer; he was a wild pokémon now. Surprisingly, he didn't feel intimidated by the thought of having to live a life fending for himself. He had been a high-ranking Rocket pokémon for a reason; his psychic powers were legendary among Team Rocket's pokémon.

Though he was secretly still seething with rage about being forgotten, he pushed the feeling to the back of his mind. He would have no problem surviving in the wild; the only ones who had to worry now were the ones who got in his way.


	28. The Forgotten City

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 28-The Forgotten City**

Snowcrystal growled in anger at the grass pokémon, raising her voice in unison with Rosie's. "That's not fair!" she cried, hardly believing that they expected her to battle for them. "This isn't our fight!"

"Do you think we're going to just let you walk free?" the tropius replied, giving her an angry stare.

Snowcrystal had to wonder what had happened to these pokémon to make them so hostile around strangers and so quick to assume things. She could hear Spark and Rosie still trying to argue with him, but she wasn't sure any of them would really be able to reason with these grass types.

Suddenly, Wildflame spoke up, causing everyone to glance at her in surprise. "All right then," the houndoom told her captors. "We'll fight for you."

"_What_?" hissed Rosie, casting a furious glance at Wildflame. "Are you crazy? I won't be able to fight!"

"True," the ivysaur told her, glancing at the ninetales. "But you'll be here to guard the cave and alert us at any sign of danger."

"No way!" Rosie shouted back defiantly.

Snowcrystal gave Wildflame a confused look, and the houndoom mouthed the words "don't argue" to her. Seeing the look in her eyes, Snowcrystal realized that Wildflame had thought of a plan, and gave Spark the same look, whispering, "Just go along with it!"

Before Spark could question her or Rosie could argue further, Snowcrystal spoke up. "We agree," she said, facing the grass pokémon again. "As long as you let us go afterward." She then waited for an answer, ignoring the scathing looks Rosie and Spark gave her.

"We _will_ let you go," the tropius replied, as he and the other grass pokémon turned to leave. "That is…if you can prove to us you aren't traitors!" He then took off after the others, leaving the four friends alone in the cavern.

"Why did you say that?" Rosie hissed at Wildflame and Snowcrystal. "I don't want to defend this cave for these pokémon after they've tried to imprison us!"

"Yeah!" Spark agreed. "I don't want to get injured in battle for someone who-"

"Quiet!" Wildflame interrupted, casting a nervous glance at the tunnel where the grass pokémon had left. "Now let me tell you this quick because some of them could be back at any minute. I told them we would fight because it's probably our best way of escape. When the battle starts, we can slip away back to this cave and find Rosie, who should be near the entrance, and attack the other guards if we have to, then make a break for it!"

"But they said the battle wouldn't be for a few days!" Spark replied. "Are we going to have to wait here for that long?"

"I'm afraid so," Wildflame replied. "But it's the only way we can get out of here without a high chance of getting hurt."

Snowcrystal nodded, and reluctantly, Rosie did too. Wildflame was right; this seemed like the easiest way, and while they were here, they could at least rest for the journey ahead of them.

* * *

For the next two days, the four friends stayed within the cave, being given water and strange food every once in a while. Despite the situation they were in and the desire to escape, Rosie and Spark were grateful of the chance to rest and to not have to travel with their painful injuries.

Snowcrystal, however, was growing restless. She _had _to find some sort of clue about where Articuno was…but she couldn't even start to look for one while she was trapped here, and it worried her to think of her home and the growlithe there who might soon be facing threats from the houndour clan. After a while of pacing around the cavern and worrying, Snowcrystal sat down beneath the starlight hole in the cave ceiling. It was the night of the second day they had had to spent in the cave since being captured, and tomorrow was the day of the battle, and the escape.

Snowcrystal glanced at her three friends, who were already asleep. She turned her gaze to the section of starlit sky she could see through the ceiling, and was almost instantly reminded of her home in the mountains once again. She almost wished she were back there now, that she had never taken this quest, and was safe back in her snowy cave at home.

"No…" she whispered to herself. "I can't go home…not until I find out what made Articuno have to leave…" She lay down on the cold stone floor, gazing at the stars a moment longer before her thoughts slowly lulled her into sleep.

* * *

"Wake up," a voice hissed in Snowcrystal's ear. "It's time."

Snowcrystal stirred, blinking in confusion at the ivysaur that stood over her. "Time for what?" she asked, still a bit dazed after just waking up.

"The battle," the ivysaur calmly replied, and went to wake up Wildflame.

Snowcrystal sat up, shaking her fur free of dust and waited, trying not to let her excitement or fear show. _Today was the day they were going to escape…_However, Snowcrystal could not shake off the lingering dread that something was going to go wrong. Pushing the thought from her mind, she went to stand beside Wildflame and Spark as they waited to be led out of the cave and toward the battle. Rosie sat a small distance away, trying not to act as if she was planning anything suspicious.

After a moment, the four pokémon were taken into a different cavern. Snowcrystal picked up a stronger scent of fresh air and grass, and figured that this cavern must be close to the cave's entrance. There was a large amount of powerful-looking grass types there, and Snowcrystal shuddered. She didn't want to imagine fighting _them_. She wondered how strong the fire type pokémon they had heard about were.

As the ivysaur from before made a few brief statements about the battle, Snowcrystal crouched down, hardly listening. Looking down at the crystal she had been given, she noticed how battered and worn it looked now. Scratches covered its shiny surface, and it was covered in dust and bits of dry mud. She felt guilty for letting Iceclaw's gift get in this condition, when it had been so special to him.

A cry from the grass pokémon around her jolted Snowcrystal out of her thoughts. Standing up quickly, she followed them as they made their way out of the cave, watching as Rosie was made to take her place at the cave's entrance with the other guards. The ninetales was trying to appear brave, but Snowcrystal could tell that she was scared. She tried to give Rosie a comforting look, but she wasn't sure the ninetales could see her in the crowd of grass pokémon.

As the small army of pokémon moved on, surrounding Snowcrystal, Wildflame, and Spark on all sides, they soon lost sight of Rosie. Worried, Snowcrystal glanced at every tree, rock, and bush, trying to remember them. She didn't want to get lost and not be able to find Rosie after they left the battle. Wildflame seemed to be doing the same thing as they walked, though none of the grass pokémon noticed either of them.

Once Snowcrystal was starting to get a little tired, and Spark had started limping much worse, the grass pokémon stopped at a large rocky and grassy area near a stream. "We're…here…I guess…" Wildflame whispered to her friends.

"Then where are the fire types?" Spark asked, looking around at the trees and at the groups of large boulders nearby, which could have easily made a den for pokémon.

Some of the grass pokémon seemed just as confused as they were. "This is where they live now, right?" one of the younger ones asked.

The sceptile beside him nodded, looking around warily. "They might have been suspecting an attack and moved somewhere else last night!" he called to the leading grass types.

"You're probably right," another said, "Maybe we should-"

His voice cut off as without warning, several columns of flame launched toward the group from all directions. "Get down!" Wildflame hissed, pushing Spark off his feet and out of the way of one of the blasts as it came near.

Snowcrystal ducked her head as the flames seared by, then looked up to see the shapes of several fire pokémon appearing from various hiding places. She had to duck again as they fired several more bursts of red-hot fire.

Since Snowcrystal, Spark, and Wildflame had been in the center of the group, they had been mostly safe from the attacks. Many of the grass pokémon however, were wounded; some of them badly.

"Don't just stand there!" the ivysaur shouted back at them. "ATTACK!"

Many of the grass pokémon either ran forward or shot a razor leaf attack at their enemies, while the fire pokémon stayed where they were, still firing attacks. Snowcrystal saw the tropius from before launch himself into the sky and slam down on an unsuspecting flareon. Another fire type, a quilava, was wrenched into the air by vine whip and thrown forcefully onto the rocks before he even had a chance to attack. Despite this, it was the fire pokémon who seemed to be dealing the most damage.

Snowcrystal darted away from the main fighting, but there seemed to be enemies on all sides. "Hey!" shouted a bayleef, causing Snowcrystal to turn around. "What are you waiting for? Attack!" Snowcrystal ignored the shout, looking frantically around for Spark and Wildflame, who had gotten separated from her in the confusion soon after the battle had started. Snowcrystal soon spotted Spark's spiky yellow pelt and ran over to him.

"Spark! Where's Wildflame?" she asked, noticing that the houndoom wasn't around.

"I don't know!" Spark replied, "I had to avoid another flamethrower and-"

"Look out!" Snowcrystal cried, knocking Spark out of the way as a massive thorny vine broke out of the ground and whipped toward them. Frantically, Spark and Snowcrystal scrambled away as more vines broke free from the earth. They darted further away, hearing the cries of several fire types who had gotten caught in the attack.

"I've seen that before!" Spark shouted breathlessly once they were out of range. "That's frenzy plant! How on earth did one of these wild pokémon know frenzy plant?"

"I don't know," Snowcrystal gasped. "Let's just find Wildflame and get out of here!" She looked around, ignoring the confusing sounds of battle and various attacks, and soon spotted Wildflame darting to avoid one of the fire pokémon, who was shouting something angrily to her. Snowcrystal only caught the word 'traitor'.

Wildflame fired a flamethrower in the pokémon's direction, and it stopped chasing her. Hearing Snowcrystal's shout, she began to head in the direction of the white growlithe and Spark.

Snowcrystal watched the houndoom bound closer to them with long strides, avoiding the sparring pokémon and large rocks. "Stay there!" Wildflame called to them. "And when I get there, follow me!" The distance between Wildflame and Snowcrystal was closing, but as the houndoom neared her friends, several razor sharp leaves sped in her direction, cutting her back legs and causing her to stumble.

Wildflame looked up to see a meganium staring at her in anger, obviously mistaking her for one of the enemy fire pokémon. "Don't attack me!" Wildflame shouted at him, leaping to her feet. "I'm fighting _for_ you, remember?"

A moment later, she realized that she had stopped too long. The same vines that Spark and Snowcrystal had seen erupted from the ground again, trapping all pokémon unfortunate enough to be close by. Wildflame was one of them.

The houndoom let out a painful howl as the thorny vines wrapped around her middle and lifted her into the air before slamming her down against the rocky ground. Stars exploded in the houndoom's vision, and she clawed and bit frantically at the vine as she felt it lift her into the air again.

Snowcrystal stood frozen to the spot for a split second; Wildflame's screams of pain echoing in her ears. Then she was running, running towards the massive twisting vines that wrapped more tightly around the houndoom and sent her crashing to the ground another time before lifting her up once more.

Hardly believing what she was doing, the small growlithe leaped towards the vines, opening her mouth and releasing a whirling blast of flames. Snowcrystal stared in disbelief as she watched her own attack, which looked like several columns of flame twisting together, strike the vines and burn through them. Wildflame was released and as she fell to the ground, Snowcrystal ran over to her. The houndoom stood up, not badly injured. Snowcrystal's fire attack had hardly hurt her, and apart from several scratches from the thorns, the vines hadn't seemed to do any serious damage.

"Snowcrystal…" Wildflame whispered with a hint of pride in her voice. "You…you learned flame wheel!"

Snowcrystal smiled back at the houndoom and the two of them ran toward Spark, who looked just as surprised.

"You finally learned a new attack!" Spark cried. "Now you can actually fight!"

"Yeah, sure," Snowcrystal replied. "Let's just get out of here!"

Wildflame nodded and the three pokémon headed away from the battle, avoiding any remaining fire pokémon were still surrounding the area. Luckily, the three managed to make it away unnoticed, and they quickly scampered back in the direction of the cave, hearing the sounds of battle gradually fade away.

"Well that worked like a charm!" Wildflame exclaimed, still seeming excited about Snowcrystal's new attack. "Now we've got to find Rosie and get out of here!"

The three pokémon ran toward the cave, Wildflame in the lead. However, when the cave came in sight, the houndoom stopped, seeming suddenly worried. Confused, Snowcrystal walked up to her side, looking at the cave. What she saw filled her with dread.

The guards in front of the cave were either fainted or had run away, and she wasn't sure that one of the fainted ones was actually still alive. All around the cave were signs of a battle, and Rosie was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Nearly three days had passed since the night Redclaw and Stormblade had met up with Thunder. Because of Stormblade's injuries, the going had been painfully slow, and they had had to take long breaks often. For a while during this time, Stormblade had attempted to talk to Thunder many times, but she had always ended up either yelling at him or ignoring him. Redclaw had tried to talk to her about why she seemed so angry, but she hadn't answered him either.

Prey was scarce in this area, and though it had recently rained, there was little water to be found at all; it had soaked into the ground and turned it to mud, which had mostly dried under the heat of the sun. They had traveled east until they reached the burned forest, which they were now going around, heading in a northward direction.

Redclaw was worried. Underneath the hot midday sun, there were little trees or shelter in the area. The last time they had found a good source of water was two days ago. Redclaw was thirsty, though he wasn't worried for himself; as a fire type he could go without water longer than most other pokémon, but he was worried about the two scyther.

Thunder never complained of thirst, but Redclaw could tell that she was weakening. She had been thin and malnourished before, and this lack of food and water was just making it all the worse for her. However, she had tried her best to hide this, and surprisingly, she had kept up with Redclaw well.

For Stormblade, it was a different story. The injured pokémon had grown weaker and weaker; not just from lack of food and water, but from his wounds as well. Even though Redclaw had been helping Stormblade walk, the scyther had grown so weak that he had been forced to stumble along using his injured leg as well as his good one, causing it to become even more painful than before. The bandages around his wounds had become filthy and bloodstained, and they were starting to stink. Stormblade's cough seemed to be gone for the most part, but other than that, he didn't seem to be getting any better. And they still hadn't found one pokémon who knew anything about healing.

As Redclaw and Thunder walked on, Redclaw supporting Stormblade along the way, Stormblade suddenly slumped to the ground and collapsed. Redclaw turned toward him instantly, nudging the motionless scyther with his snout. Stormblade didn't move; he was out cold.

"Oh no…" Redclaw whispered worriedly. Stormblade had been weak before and had collapsed, but he had never passed out since he and Redclaw had escaped Team Rocket's building. "He needs help…" Redclaw murmured to himself. "And right now what he needs most is _water_…"

"How very clever of you to realize that," Thunder muttered sarcastically, walking over to him. "My advice…don't bother going to look for water. There isn't any here. And I doubt it would help anyway; at this point, there's not much hope for him."

Redclaw noticed Thunder looking at Stormblade with a strange expression, and he thought she looked angry, though he couldn't tell what she was really thinking. "We have to try," he told her urgently. "We're going to stop and look for water. Maybe you should fly up above the area and see if there are any streams…"

"I've done that…" Thunder muttered. "I did it twice yesterday and once the day before. There aren't any streams here. There were some when me and Stormblade passed this way before, but we were much closer to the human city and also in danger of poacher traps. I don't know if there are any other streams."

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to check a little farther," Redclaw told her. "And we've made progress this way…there has to be _something_! A stream leading to that destroyed forest, maybe?"

"There probably is one," Thunder replied, finding it hard to speak due to thirst. "But none near. And searching for it would bring us way too close to the poachers. I guess I'll check north of here."

She spread her wings and took off. Redclaw realized with guilt that it was hard for her to fly; her wing was still injured from the fight with Volco, and he felt bad for sending her out to search when she was so weak, but Stormblade needed it now. He sat down and waited, licking the dried blood from the cut on Stormblade's head.

After a while, Thunder returned, looking exhausted. She staggered toward Redclaw, waving her scythe in the direction she had flown. "There's no streams," she told him, and before Redclaw could feel disappointed, she went on. "But I saw some sort of really old human town. It looked completely abandoned by whoever lived there, and there were pokémon wandering freely in the streets, but no sign of humans. It might be worth looking there-there's always water in human cities, and rain could have collected in a lot of places there. I'd say that's our best bet."

Redclaw nodded. "We'll go together-you look too tired to fly anymore," he began, and Thunder gave him a seething glare. "We're going to have to wait for Stormblade to wake up…let's just hope he's strong enough to make it…how far was the town?"

"Not far," Thunder replied. "It wouldn't take that long to reach it, though with Stormblade, of course, it might." She gave Stormblade an annoyed glance. "I'm honestly surprised he's lasted this long," she muttered.

Redclaw glared at her, but said nothing. Thunder turned away from Stormblade, seeming uneasy around the injured pokémon. "Anything we can do to wake him up?" she asked, clearly impatient.

"I don't know," Redclaw told her. "We might just have to wait." He leaned down toward Stormblade, who was, surprisingly, starting to stir. Seeing that his friend was waking up, Redclaw carefully nudged his head, watching as Stormblade opened his eyes. The scyther instantly closed them again, reluctant to try and stand up.

"Thunder found a place that's bound to have water," Redclaw told him. "All we have to do is make it there and we can rest."

Stormblade slowly stood up, quickly leaning against Redclaw for support. Thunder watched him impatiently, seeming annoyed that it took him so long to stand. "Well now that he's awake, let's get on with it!" Thunder growled.

Redclaw nodded, pausing to scratch at his metal collar before following Thunder as the scyther walked on ahead. Thunder stopped and waited for Redclaw, who was still helping Stormblade. Redclaw looked at the injured scyther and sighed; this was going to be a long walk.

By afternoon, the three pokémon had left the burned forest well behind them and came to the outskirts of the abandoned city Thunder had found before. Redclaw stared at it uncertainly. They were standing in front of an old, faded sign placed on top of two tall wooden posts in front of the first buildings and ruined streets of the city. There were human-made markings carved on the sign, which looked damaged and old.

Redclaw turned to Thunder. "It…_does_ look abandoned," he whispered quietly, still looking wary of entering.

"I flew over the town before," Thunder snapped, "It's _fine_!"

"All right," Redclaw replied, still nervous. "Let's go."

The three pokémon walked under the archway created by the old sign. "You sure there's water here?" Stormblade asked, lifting his head weakly to look at Redclaw. Though the arcanine was relieved that Stormblade looked a bit stronger now that he knew they would probably find water soon, Redclaw was still fighting the lingering doubt that Stormblade would make it to a healer alive. The infection in his wounds _had_ to be getting worse.

"There has to be _some_ place where rainwater has collected," Redclaw told him. He motioned with his head toward the crumbling buildings and streets. "Let's have a look around." He knew it would be easier to find water if Thunder flew around to search, but he also knew that she was weak, and he didn't want to ask her. She didn't offer to search, either.

As they walked further into the old city, Redclaw began to catch glimpses of pokémon. Most of them were small normal or electric types, but there were a few larger species as well. All of them scampered away the moment the travelers came into their view. Redclaw tried to ask a raichu if it knew where water was, but it darted into an alley before Redclaw could even finish his sentence.

"This place sure is strange…" Thunder whispered quietly, glancing at Redclaw.

"I wonder why all the pokémon here are so nervous…" the arcanine replied, pausing to glance around.

After a short while, Redclaw and the others started to smell a putrid stench, and noticed several grimer and a few muk lurking in dark alleyways. These alleyways were almost all coated in mud from the rainwater and strewn with debris, making them good places for grimer to hide. Several small pokémon darted fearfully in and out of the alleys, paying the grimer and muk no heed. Whatever they were scared of, it certainly wasn't them.

All the buildings were crumbling and old; some had even collapsed. Very few of them still had doors, and several had broken windows. Every once in a while a pokémon would come in or out of one of the buildings, and Redclaw realized that they probably took shelter there. He caught a glimpse into one of the buildings, but it was only filled with mud and old, useless pieces of some old strange human items that he couldn't identify.

"I guess you were right, Thunder," Redclaw told the scyther as they walked along, "Guess it's safe to say there are no humans here…wonder what made them have to leave…"

"Don't know," Thunder replied, not seeming as curious as Redclaw was about the whole thing.

The group stopped suddenly as they came upon a tall wall surrounding one of the ruined buildings. Along this wall were intricate carvings, each depicting a detailed image of a pokémon. Curious, Redclaw walked over to it, careful to help Stormblade. He looked at each of the carvings around him, seeming lost in thought. For a reason he couldn't describe, there seemed to be a strange air of mystery around the place.

Thunder glanced at a section of the wall where a large door used to be, which had been broken long ago. "There could be some water in that building," she suggested, noticing that parts of the old building's roof were broken, and rainwater could have easily collected inside.

Redclaw nodded and walked toward the doorway in the wall, noticing two carvings-an arcanine and a scyther, catch his eye. Stormblade noticed them too, and looked around to see if there were carvings of the species of his friends, but only found a growlithe one.

The three pokémon walked through the opening and into the large building, which seemed to be on the verge of collapsing. There was no water there, but something else caught Stormblade's eye. "Look!" he whispered. "It's Articuno."

Stormblade's voice was so quiet that Redclaw hardly heard him, but he followed the scyther's gaze to a large faded painting, which had been badly torn, yet the image of the legendary bird could still be seen clearly. Redclaw could tell that if the painting had been in better shape, it would have been beautiful.

"Yeah, so?" Thunder muttered, interrupting Redclaw's thoughts, "It's only a stupid painting! There are lots of them here!" She motioned with her scythe toward the opposite side of the room, where several damaged paintings hung from the wall or lay strewn across the floor. "We came here for water, didn't we?" she reminded them, and they followed her through a corridor and into another room. The ceiling was badly damaged there, and sunlight shone through onto the filthy floor.

Around this room were several old statues, most of them broken, as well as slabs of stone depicting strange carvings. The strange soft floor underneath them was damp, but there was still no sign of any water.

"Let's try somewhere else," Redclaw told the others quietly. "There's nothing here." He started to turn, when he noticed Stormblade looking at something. He looked up to see one of the old carvings that was still placed on the wall.

This one was different than most of the others. It depicted several small pokémon of various species lying across the ground, either dead or dying. Redclaw noticed a growlithe among them. Above the dying pokémon stood a scyther, its blades raised above a tiny eevee, ready to strike.

"Well that's lovely," Thunder muttered sarcastically, eyeing the carvings of the dead pokémon. "Wonder what human made this…someone like Master I'm sure."

"I don't know," Redclaw replied, wondering why the human had carved the picture in the first place. He looked around, noticing a few other carvings somewhat like it, depicting pokémon battles or a predator catching prey. However none of them showed dead or dying pokémon, apart from the pidgey the persian in one carving was pouncing on. "Maybe it was supposed to give a warning or something," Redclaw mused, glancing at the scyther picture again. He turned back toward the way they had come.

The arcanine started to leave, but then stopped, noticing that Stormblade was still staring at the carving of the scyther, with an expression that made it hard to tell what he was thinking. "What's wrong?" Redclaw asked him.

Stormblade turned away from the carving as if being snapped out of a trance. "Nothing," he said quickly, limping over to Redclaw. "Let's look somewhere else…there's no water here at all."

Redclaw nodded and they walked out of the building, leaving it and the strange wall of pokémon carvings behind. They walked further down one of the many roads, seeing only a few rattata who scampered away with frightened squeaks at the sight of them.

After a short while, Thunder stopped suddenly. "I think I can see water up ahead…" she told the others. "Follow me."

Redclaw didn't see the water, but he followed Thunder as she led him across an old, cracked road and through what had once been a small field. It was now nothing but mud and dust, strewn with debris from collapsed buildings. Thunder led them through the field and to where a long, deep channel ran through a part of the city, passing by them and nearing another section of buildings. Flowing through the channel, which Redclaw assumed must have once been some sort of canal…was water.

"It had to have come from the rain," Thunder stated, looking down at the water. It appeared dark and murky in some places, but it was flowing smoothly, and would probably be the only relatively fresh water they were going to find anytime soon. "It doesn't look too bad," Thunder muttered. "There was probably just a lot of dust that blew into it."

Redclaw nodded as the three of them approached the water, and gently pushed Stormblade forward and towards it. "See? I told you we'd find water!" he told him. "Good thing it rained a little while ago. Now go get a drink."

Stormblade immediately stumbled to the water's edge and leaned down, plunging his head into it and drinking as much as he could. It tasted strange to him, but he was far too thirsty to care. Redclaw quickly followed him to the water's edge, and Thunder walked up to it as well.

As Thunder bent down to drink the water, Redclaw stiffened, realizing that a faint, but still foul, stench was slowly wafting toward him from it, and growing stronger. "Wait!" he shouted. Thunder paused and looked up at him with a confused expression.

Redclaw dashed toward Stormblade, pushing the scyther away from the water. "It doesn't smell right!" he cried, and Stormblade simply looked at him, confused, while Thunder bent down to give the water a closer sniff.

Almost instantly she bared her teeth in disgust and backed away. "It smells disgusting!" she exclaimed.

"It's getting worse…" Redclaw mused, feeling the strange scent drifting more strongly towards him. Something caught his eye and he glanced into the water, seeing a thin trail of something dark and purplish flowing through it. A feeling of dread crept over him as his eyes followed the trail to a place further down in the canal and he froze as he noticed a large muk heave itself out of the water and slowly ooze into a dark alleyway. Thunder noticed the muk too and backed away from the water as if afraid to touch it, looking thoroughly disgusted that she had been about to drink it.

Redclaw cast a panicked glance at Stormblade, who was looking at Thunder with a puzzled expression; obviously he hadn't seen the muk and didn't know what was wrong with the water. Redclaw fought to keep his worry under control and looked at Stormblade again.

"So uh….how are you feeling?" he asked, instantly realizing how stupid he sounded.

"What do you mean by that?" Stormblade asked; a hint of panic beginning to show in his eyes as he realized by Redclaw's tone of voice that something was definitely wrong.

Redclaw opened his mouth to speak, knowing that making Stormblade panicked would just make things worse, but Thunder spoke before him.

"He means you've just ingested poison," Thunder told him calmly, "Nice going."

Redclaw shot her a 'you're-not-helping' glare, and turned to Stormblade, who suddenly looked very frightened. "P-poison…?" the scyther whispered quietly.

Reluctantly, Redclaw nodded. "There was a muk in the water…" he whispered quietly, "I'm sorry…I should have checked it out first…I knew something wasn't right…"

"It's his own fault!" Thunder shouted, pointing to Stormblade with her scythe, "He just started drinking the water without even bothering to smell it first!"

Stormblade shrank back from Thunder's gaze. Redclaw walked to his side and stood beside him. "It's not his fault," he told Thunder, "He didn't know, and he's hurt. If I was in as much pain as he was, I probably wouldn't have noticed it in time either. It isn't anyone's fault."

Thunder's eyes narrowed and she turned away, annoyed that Redclaw had stood up for Stormblade. "So what do you suppose we do?" she asked, turning her head enough to give Redclaw another annoyed look.

Redclaw lowered his head, feeling helpless and knowing that if Stormblade really had swallowed any poison, it could start to affect him at any minute.

"I…I don't know…" he admitted.

_(Another chapter uploaded...I'm getting caught up to what I have written...slowly.)_


	29. Unexpected Attacks

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 29- Unexpected Attacks**

Snowcrystal tried not to panic as she glanced frantically around. "Where's Rosie?" she cried, echoing her friends' fear.

"She might have gotten away…or she might be in the cave…" Wildflame replied quietly.

"I don't think she would run away without us…or at least she wouldn't have gotten far if she had," Spark replied. "We should check in the cave…those fire pokémon might come back and it would be better to search there while they aren't around!"

Wildflame nodded and ran into the cave. "Snowcrystal, follow me! Spark, stay there. You need to keep watch in case they came back, and you're injured!"

Spark mumbled something grudgingly under his breath and reluctantly took his place by the entrance. Snowcrystal followed Wildflame carefully inside.

The houndoom was sniffing the ground, trying to determine how recently Rosie had been there. But with all the confusing scents of blood and other pokémon, it was impossible to tell. After a moment, Wildflame gave up trying to find Rosie by scent. "Let's just look around…and quick!" she whispered.

Snowcrystal nodded and followed Wildflame as she dashed through the tunnels to the one where they had been held captive. There was no sign of anyone, and the scents of blood and battle seemed to be faded here. Wildflame sighed, turning around and starting to head back.

"Wait!" Snowcrystal shouted, pointing with her nose to a few scraps of creamy white fur lying strewn across the ground. Wildflame turned and ran over to them, barely being able to distinguish Rosie's scent as she got closer to the scraps of fur. The ninetales had been here…recently, but why was the scent so subtle?

Then both Wildflame and Snowcrystal realized it. There were specks of blood dotted around the floor of the cavern, the signs of a small and brief battle, but the scents of the pokémon had faded, to be replaced with what was now a weak, yet recognizable scent of a grass pokémon's attack, possibly stun spore. The once strong scent now lay over everything, making it hard to distinguish the other scents.

"I guess some of the fire pokémon invaded the cave and fought the grass ones in this cavern," Snowcrystal told Wildflame. "I just wish I knew where they are now…and where Rosie is!"

Wildflame nodded and they walked into a dark tunnel leading out of the cavern and deeper into the small cave, looking for any further signs of a battle. Snowcrystal found traces of blood leading off down another tunnel, and they turned and followed that one. Up ahead, there was no light, safe for the glow of Snowcrystal's luminous crystal.

As they emerged into a small cavern, Snowcrystal stopped suddenly. Several grass types, both young and old, were huddled together in the small darkened space, each looking fearfully at the two fire types as they approached.

"Don't worry!" Snowcrystal told them. "We aren't here to hurt you…we're just looking for our friend!"

At this statement, two of the grass pokémon looked at each other knowingly and stepped aside to reveal Rosie, who lay unconscious on the ground behind them.

"What happened?" Snowcrystal asked, running to her friend's side. Luckily, Rosie didn't seem badly hurt; she looked as if she had been knocked out by sleep powder, or something of the sort.

"Those fire types attacked us in here…" a tiny bulbasaur said in a timid voice. "There weren't enough strong fighters in the cave to stop them…"

Snowcrystal looked down, seeing Rosie starting to stir. Wildflame helped to nudge the half-conscious ninetales to her feet, while Snowcrystal headed back down the tunnel. "You grass pokémon should get out of here!" she warned them, running off with Wildflame and Rosie stumbling together behind.

"But it's not safe!" one of the pokémon cried, but Snowcrystal and the others couldn't see how they could help them. This was a choice they would have to make for themselves.

"Let me guess…" Rosie muttered as she began to wake up more fully, "not everything went according to plan?"

"Not really," Wildflame admitted, "but let's just find Spark and get as far away from here as possible."

As they walked into the big cavern, the one with the large hole in the ceiling, a pokémon emerged from one of the tunnels and stood to face them. Snowcrystal tensed; it was obviously one of the fire types who had attacked the cave. Bright red scales covered the lizard-like pokémon's body, and its tail ended in a brightly burning flame. It stared at them strangely and called out, "Who are you?"

Snowcrystal realized from the look on the pokémon's face that this stranger knew that they weren't on his side, and that surprised look quickly turned to suspicion.

Wildflame's eyes narrowed. "Get out of our way!" the houndoom hissed, snarling and raising her long pointed tail.

Before the charmeleon could even make a decision, a massive tropius, much bigger than the one that called them spies before, burst into the cavern. Rearing over the unfortunate fire pokémon, the tropius quickly brought both of its hind legs crashing down against the fire type, knocking him out cold. The tropius then charged past Wildflame, Snowcrystal, and Rosie, and vanished into another tunnel.

Soon afterward, other large grass types entered the cavern, looking furious and ready to do battle. None of them paid Snowcrystal or the others any heed as they thundered past. Wildflame glanced at them before leading Snowcrystal and Rosie back toward the entrance.

When they emerged, Spark was waiting for them, looking satisfied as he watched several grass pokémon chase away enemy fire types from the cave. "I think the tide of the battle has turned," he stated. "Apparently, these grass types just got reinforcements. I suppose their clan must have been separated a long time ago, and it looks like the other half of it came just in time."

"That's great…" Rosie muttered, lashing her tails. "Let's get out of here before we're caught in the middle of it again."

The others needed no second bidding, and together, they made their way away from the scene of battle, leaving the caves far behind.

* * *

It was nearly dark when the four friends stopped. Not far away, the remains of the burned forest loomed dark and desolate against the darkening sky. After they had fled from the grass types' battle, they had ended up close to the forest again, though now, none of them minded. They were just glad to be free and on their own again.

"We should rest for now," Snowcrystal told them. "We'll have to wait until we're stronger to try and find out anything about Articuno…though I'm really not sure how we're even going to do that…" She sighed, placing her head on her paws.

"Well it's certainly not impossible," Wildflame told her, walking closer to her. "And at least we aren't separated-"

"What do you mean?" Snowcrystal cried, anger flaring up in her eyes. "Stormblade and Thunder are GONE. Did you forget that they were taken by poachers after you saw it with your own eyes?"

Wildflame was taken aback at this reply, but to her surprise, Snowcrystal just sighed. "I'm sorry…" the growlithe muttered quickly. "It's just…I'm worried about what's happening to them…I don't know if the poachers would even want to keep Stormblade…what if they just left him in a forest somewhere alone?"

Wildflame was about to make a comment on how even that would be better than being owned by poachers, but she thought better of it. "Don't worry," she told Snowcrystal. "Things will turn out all right in the end."

"How do you know?" the young growlithe asked, looking up at Wildflame with wide eyes.

"Because," Wildflame replied simply, giving her a smile, "I believe that things will go right. That's certainly better than believing that things will go wrong, isn't it?"

"I suppose…" Snowcrystal replied, not convinced.

"Now I certainly don't know _how_ things will go right," Wildflame continued, "but things like what happened to us recently won't be happening forever. When things in my pack went wrong, it always turned out okay, even if it turned out differently than we expected. But it will be all right…I promise."

Snowcrystal gave her a small smile, and Wildflame smiled back. She wasn't completely sure she believed the things she had said, but her words had at least seemed to have satisfied the small growlithe.

"You're right…" Snowcrystal replied. "We shouldn't give up…I just hope that wherever Thunder and Stormblade are, someone's helping them too."

Wildflame nodded, and glanced back at Spark and Rosie who were still dozing off nearby. "I'm sure someone is. They'll be all right…somehow…" the houndoom replied, relieved that her words were at least calming Snowcrystal down. For all she knew, Stormblade and Thunder could be dead, but Snowcrystal didn't need to believe that. She needed to have hope, even if the situation itself was hopeless.

Laying down, Wildflame paused to glance up at the stars. There seemed to be so many now, without the large clouds and snow-strewn winds of the mountains to block them from view. It seemed peaceful here, despite all that had happened. Wildflame lay her head down, letting the cool wind ruffle her fur.

Snowcrystal sat a little ways away, her fur fluffed out against a small breeze that blew by from beyond the forest. While the others rested, she had decided to keep watch for a while, as she did not feel tired, and there could still be enemies lurking about. Curling her fluffy tail around her, she sat and gazed out over the fields, deep in thought.

* * *

'_Poison_…' Redclaw thought frantically, thinking back to what he had learned from the battles he had participated in while under the control of 'Master'. Rarely did a pokémon get poisoned, but when one did, his owner usually had some medicine to cure them with. However there was certainly none of that out here.

"Well…do you know what to do?" Stormblade asked hopefully, giving Redclaw a pleading expression.

"Calm down!" the arcanine told him. "You might not even be poisoned at all. You could have drank the water before the poison had time to spread that far from where the muk was. Now come on, let's find a cleaner source of water."

He helped the scyther to stand and walk away from the water, hoping that he was right about Stormblade not being poisoned. Maybe if they started walking, Stormblade would at least be somewhat distracted from that, and wouldn't panic at the slightest thought that poison could be affecting him. After all, Stormblade didn't look any worse now, so maybe there really was nothing to worry about.

The three pokémon walked down one of the crooked streets, and even though he was a fire type, Redclaw was starting to feel weak from lack of water. He hadn't been in the best health when he had first set out to find Stormblade's friends or some other help, after all. And Thunder was probably a lot worse off.

After a short while, during which Stormblade seemed to be having increasing trouble walking, though Redclaw had hoped it was just his imagination, Stormblade suddenly stopped altogether. He placed his blades against the ground to stop himself from falling over and took several deep breaths. Redclaw noticed that he was shaking.

"What's wrong?" Redclaw asked, alarmed at the thought that Stormblade might be poisoned after all.

"I…I feel sick…" Stormblade whispered quietly.

That was the answer that Redclaw had been dreading to hear, and from the look of Stormblade, this was probably a lot worse than just 'feeling sick'. From the look on Stormblade's face, he could tell that the scyther knew what it meant as well. "Stay here," he told Stormblade. "I'm going to go try to find some help. Thunder, you stay here too."

"NO!" Thunder shouted, and both Redclaw and Stormblade were surprised at her sudden hostility. Thunder looked as if the mere idea of staying behind with Stormblade greatly angered or even frightened her, though neither of the others were sure why. "I'm going with you," she insisted, glancing at Redclaw.

"All right…" the arcanine agreed reluctantly. "You can come with me. Let's see if any of the pokémon here will talk to us…"

"I don't want to stay here alone!" Stormblade called weakly after them as they turned to leave.

"We'll be back soon," Redclaw told him, and pointed with his muzzle toward one of the buildings. "You can stay in there. It's safer."

Stormblade reluctantly let Redclaw help him into the building, where he lay down on the muddy floor, watching as Redclaw and Thunder walked away.

"But what if-" he began worriedly, but Redclaw interrupted.

"You'll be better off here than if you came with us," Redclaw told him. "And we can search for someone who can help faster this way." He then turned and ran away down the street.

"Yeah, do you want to die from the poison or do you want us to help?" Thunder called over her shoulder before running to catch up with Redclaw.

Feeling helpless and vulnerable, Stormblade laid his head down slowly and waited for the two to return.

Redclaw and Thunder darted through the streets ahead, keeping watch for other pokémon. They saw several small ones, but couldn't talk to them in time before they darted away. Redclaw worriedly noticed that now the sun was starting to set. They hadn't been looking long, and it would be harder to search in the dark.

"This is hopeless!" Thunder muttered after a while. "There's no one here who's actually going to be willing to listen to us for even a second! We should get Stormblade and get out of here…maybe there are other pokémon nearby the city who can help us."

Redclaw nodded. Thunder was right; most of the pokémon here were prey species or species that could easily be overcome by a powerful arcanine or scyther. He wasn't surprised that they didn't want to stick around to listen to them. "All right…" he agreed, "let's go back…quickly…"

They turned and quickly ran back to where they had left Stormblade, peering around for the building they had left him in. It didn't take them long to find it, and Redclaw ran past Thunder, walking toward the building's open doorway.

Stormblade was lying on the floor of the building, though not calmly as he had been before. He was lying on his side, almost doubled up, jerking and trembling and looking like he was in terrible pain.

Redclaw was about to run to his side when he noticed something so surprising that it stopped him in his tracks. It had taken him a moment to notice it, but there was a pokémon, a small cubone, standing beside Stormblade near the entrance to the building.

At first, Redclaw wondered if the cubone was trying to help Stormblade, but as he walked closer, he realized that the ground type was simply watching the scyther writhe in agony, giving him a blank, hollow stare that gave away no remorse or concern. The cubone didn't look surprised or worried either, as if he was used to this sort of thing happening. Somehow, that unnerved Redclaw.

The arcanine rushed to Stormblade's side, and the cubone stepped aside as if making room for him to stand there. The strange pokémon didn't look up, but kept looking at Stormblade. It seemed almost as if he had nothing better to do and this dying scyther had simply attracted his interest.

"Stormblade, calm down!" Redclaw cried, wishing that his friend would lie still and not help the poison spread faster. Leaning down, Redclaw nudged Stormblade, but the scyther paid him no heed. Redclaw had to step back as one of Stormblade's scythes lashed towards his forepaw.

As Thunder stepped in the doorway, giving Stormblade an almost worried look, Redclaw turned to the silent cubone. "Have you seen something like this before?" he asked desperately. "Do you know to treat it?"

Looking up at him with wide eyes that looked almost sad, the cubone nodded his head to the first question and shook his head to the last.

"Well do you know anyone who _can_?" Redclaw asked, though he was sure he knew what the answer would probably be.

Yet to his surprise, the cubone paused a moment, staring at him, before nodding.

"Can you take us to him?" Redclaw asked.

The cubone paused again before nodding and turned to walk slowly past Thunder and out of the doorway of the building. Thunder rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you say that in the first place if you already knew where help was?" she muttered, and turned to look at Stormblade.

"We won't be able to take him anywhere if he doesn't hold still…" Redclaw mused, wishing the cubone had at least stopped to wait for them.

Sighing, Thunder stood up and walked over to Stormblade, placing her foot on the weakening scyther's neck. Lifting her scythe above him, she suddenly brought the dull side of the blade down hard against the side of his head, and Stormblade cried out in pain before falling still. "There," she told Redclaw quietly, "problem solved."

"What did you do that for?" Redclaw growled.

"So you can bring Stormblade to where help is," Thunder muttered, turning and walking out the door. Knowing that time was valuable, Redclaw lightly gripped Stormblade's wings in his jaws and dragged him as carefully as he could across the muddied floor and out of the building.

Thunder was standing beside the strange cubone, who was eyeing her metal collar strangely. Redclaw caught up with them, trying to cause Stormblade as little damage as possible while carrying him.

Tapping Redclaw lightly with his claw, the cubone pointed to a road which led further down the street, and began walking again, though slowly, as if he didn't see any real need for urgency.

"What's the matter with you?" Thunder shouted to him, annoyed. "Can't you talk?"

The cubone didn't answer, and kept walking. Redclaw followed, setting down Stormblade for a moment to ask, "Can you just show us where this pokémon is? We have to get there fast!" To his dismay, the cubone kept walking, not giving any indication that he had heard. Seeing no other option, Redclaw picked up Stormblade by the wings again and followed.

For a while longer they walked, and Redclaw was growing worried about Stormblade. Even Thunder seemed a bit nervous, and kept glancing at the unconscious scyther. Just when Redclaw was about to give up and try to look elsewhere for help, a strange human-made statue loomed into view up ahead.

Redclaw approached it, realizing that the statue stood in the middle of a large circular area surrounded by buildings. The ground there was different, and though there were no human scents, there were several pokémon ones, much fresher than the ones he'd smelled in other parts of the city. He wondered if a lot of pokémon had gathered here recently.

The statue itself was large and strange. It was a brownish-gold statue of a rapidash rearing back on its hind legs, with a human sitting on its back. The statue was much bigger than a real rapidash and human, and it towered over Redclaw and Thunder. The strange thing about it was that some parts of the statue looked melted, mostly the head, mane, and forelimbs of the rapidash. It was as if some very powerful fire attack had distorted the statue long ago, giving it an eerie and rather grotesque look. Redclaw assumed that it had originally been made to look as if the rapidash was yelling a battle cry, though now it almost seemed as if it was screaming in pain or fear. The base of the statue, which the rapidash was standing on, had many human-made markings on it that the pokémon could not understand.

The cubone had stopped here, and seemed to be waiting for something. Redclaw set Stormblade down against the base of the statue, feeling relieved that he could still hear the thin scyther's feeble breathing. He turned to Thunder, who was idly slashing at the base of the statue, creating long scratches across its once shiny surface.

"Stupid human made thing…" she muttered, looking up at it. "I'm glad some pokémon ruined it!"

Redclaw turned away from her and to the small cubone, who was now walking away, much to Redclaw's dismay and surprise. "Wait!" he called, running after him. "Where are you going? Who's going to help us?" The cubone neither stopped nor acknowledged him, and Redclaw was about to try and catch up to the pokémon when an earsplitting screech stopped him in his tracks.

Redclaw whirled around, just in time to see the pokémon who had made the cry, a vigoroth, launch itself toward Thunder, taking her by surprise and knocking her to the ground.

Forgetting the cubone for a moment, Redclaw bounded toward her, watching as the vigoroth raked its claws down Thunder's injured side. Thunder quickly retaliated, slashing with her scythe across the vigoroth's shoulder and making him step back with a hiss of pain.

As Redclaw reached Thunder, he prepared to use flamethrower in order to stop the vigoroth from attacking again, but soon realized there was no need. The pokémon turned and fled back to the safety of a nearby alleyway.

"What was _that_ all about?" Thunder spat, pausing to watch as blood oozed from the wounds on her side.

"I don't know," Redclaw replied, looking around for the cubone, but now there was no sign of him. "But I think-"

He was cut off as several angry cries sounded from around him. He watched in terror as many different pokémon, as one, began emerging from buildings and alleys all around them, moving steadily closer. Redclaw could see several vigoroth, nidorino, nidorina, sandslash, marowak, muk, and grimer, though there were a few of other species as well. He spotted some charmander and linoone, and even a flareon. All of them looked and acted as if they belonged to one group, and to Redclaw's horror, they all looked _pleased_ and willing to begin a fight.

As Redclaw backed against the statue, he couldn't help but wonder how those other pokémon could stand the grimer and muk's stench. With so many around, the smell was now overpowering, though the other pokémon didn't seem to mind at all. Redclaw then felt furious at the fact that the lone cubone had led them into a trap; what had they done to him?

His thoughts were interrupted as several of the pokémon darted forward, while others simply sat back to watch. Redclaw leaped away as a nidorino charged passed him, narrowly avoiding having the pokémon gouge its long horn into his leg. As he paused to catch his breath, two vigoroth jumped toward him, slashing through his fur viciously with their curved claws. Redclaw turned his head to send them away with a fire attack, but something struck his shoulder hard and quickly and caused him to fall to the ground.

A marowak, holding a long, thick bone stepped toward him, though Redclaw ignored him, focusing instead on using his hind legs to kick one of the vigoroth away from him. He could hear more pokémon racing toward him, and fought to regain his footing again. He managed to scramble to his feet and quickly send the marowak away with a fire attack. He glanced at Thunder who was fighting with a sandslash who was trying to give her some deep cuts, before he had to stop and attempt to fend off the many pokémon that were attacking him from all sides.

As Redclaw fired a blast of flame at several of the pokémon and raked his claws across the flareon's back, he heard the sandslash Thunder was fighting cry out and run back to the safety of the buildings. The other pokémon, seeing that the two strangers were starting to put up a good fight, came racing toward them, eager to join in the battle.

Knowing that this would be far too many opponents for him to even have any hope of fighting, Redclaw did the only thing he could think of at the moment. Opening his mouth wide, he released a billowing cloud of red-hot flames, the biggest flame wheel attack he could manage. Turning his head, he spun around quickly, encircling the statue and himself in a wall of brightly blazing fire.

The enemy pokémon caught in the center of the blazing circle backed away fearfully, though Redclaw knew that they wouldn't be fearful for long. Quickly he ran over to Thunder, who at first seemed to have no serious injuries, until he noticed that one of her arms-the one with the shackle still attached to it, was cut very deeply, and she seemed to be having trouble raising that arm.

"You all right?" Redclaw asked her, giving her a worried look.

Noticing this, Thunder scowled at him. "Shut up and worry about yourself!" she snapped.

Deciding it was best to do as she said, Redclaw turned to Stormblade, who still lay unconscious. He couldn't see any new injuries on him, and realized that the attackers must have left him alone while they concentrated on him and Thunder first.

Redclaw's ears pricked as the pokémon inside the ring of flames walked toward them, not seeming worried that their comrades could no longer reach them because of the fire. '_That fire won't last forever…'_ Redclaw thought, growing worried. '_At least we'll be able to take these pokémon down easier!' _

With a roar he leaped forward, knocking a nidorino off his feet and sending him crashing into one of the other enemies. Thunder tried to run forward, raising both of her arms, but immediately stopped, crying out in pain and stumbling.

Alarmed, Redclaw glanced toward her, not noticing a marowak lifting its arm to throw. When the bone slammed into his head, it took Redclaw by complete surprise. Stunned, he didn't even realize he was falling until his head hit the rough ground underneath him. Still dazed, he was barely aware of the pokémon still battling with Thunder, who was slashing at them with one arm, and the pokémon who were now approaching him.

As he tried to force his exhausted limbs to move, Redclaw pointed his head toward the enemy pokémon and tried to use a fire attack, but the attack wouldn't come. Wearily he pushed himself up on his paws, ignoring the stabbing pain in his head, as he braced himself for a fight he didn't think he could win.

A sandslash bolder than the rest of the pokémon braced itself before leaping toward the weakened arcanine, its lethal claws outstretched. As Redclaw braced himself, something flew down at the sandslash from an angle, not only cannoning into the pokémon, but also sending it flying over the slowly diminishing wall of flame. The pokémon who had struck it came to a halt as it landed between Redclaw and the other remaining enemy pokémon.

This newcomer obviously didn't live in the city. It was a tall and powerful looking dark blue bug type, covered in tough armor thicker than a scyther's. It had long, curved claws at the end of its arms and feet, and two spikes jutted out of the sides of each of its arms. The pokémon's most deadly weapon was obviously its horn, which curved upward from its head and had two very sharp-looking prongs at its tip. There was a notable scar over the pokémon's left eye, which showed that he was no stranger to battling. Redclaw recognized this species of pokémon; it was a heracross, and he knew that though they were incredibly powerful, they were usually docile. He couldn't help but wonder…what was a heracross doing here?

Before he could stop her, Thunder darted at the heracross from behind, obviously not realizing that he wasn't one of the enemies that had attacked him. She lifted her arm, and Redclaw expected the heracross to be cut badly by the blow; he knew that even when injured, Thunder was a formidable fighter.

However, to his surprise, the heracross whirled around at the last instant, blocking Thunder's scythe with the spikes on his arm. "Stop that!" he growled, though his voice sounded neither intimidating nor threatening. "I'm trying to help you!"

Without another word he pushed the surprised Thunder away and ran toward the other remaining pokémon, two nidorino, a marowak, a vigoroth, and the flareon. The first two, one of the nidorino and the vigoroth, were slammed forcefully against the statue as the heracross rammed them with his horn. Spreading his wings and flying above the other nidorino who had leapt to attack him, the heracross turned to the vigoroth, dodging a blast of fire from the flareon.

Feeling some of his strength returning, Redclaw leaped up and ran to his new ally's aid, knocking the flareon through the wall of flames with a massive swipe from his paw. The pokémon was obviously not hurt from the fire, though it did not return to do battle. He then bolted toward the nidorino who was still conscious, while the heracross battled with the vigoroth.

Thunder, however, was not fighting. At first, she had run toward the enemies just like Redclaw had, though the pain in her right arm had stopped her, and she still found it very difficult to move it. For a moment, she could picture her Master, calmly telling her to get up and keep fighting, with a look in his eyes that spoke all the threats his words didn't. She closed her eyes and stayed where she was. She didn't have to keep going. Master wasn't here.

Redclaw had managed to knock the nidorino out, though it had been difficult, and the heracross had finished his battle with the vigoroth. Turning to Redclaw, the bug type told him, "I think it's time we got out of here. Can you run?"

Redclaw glanced over his wounds, which didn't seem serious, and nodded.

"Good," the heracross replied. "This circle of fire won't last much longer. We need to head out of the city the quickest way possible. Did you see an old sign at the city's outskirts while you were here?"

"Y-yes…" Redclaw stammered. "We came in that way. But how are we going to get out without-"

"Me and that scyther can fly out," the heracross told him. "As for you…you're going to have to make a run for it. Shouldn't be too hard if you don't let them corner you first…arcanine are some of the fastest pokémon, you know."

Redclaw nodded, and flicked his tail toward Stormblade. "What about him?" he asked. "I can't carry him and run at the same time, and he's been poisoned…"

"I can carry him," the heracross replied, walking over to Stormblade. "Now hurry, we don't have much time. Get ready to run, arcanine."

Redclaw nodded again, and watched as Thunder spread out her wings and took to the air. He idly wondered why she hadn't tried to fly away and leave them before, which seemed like something she would have done. He shook away the thought, watching as the heracross approached Stormblade and lifted the bigger scyther with surprising ease. "Go!" he yelled to Redclaw, spreading his wings just as Thunder had.

Turning around, Redclaw burst through the circle of flames, darting past surprised pokémon and leaping over a muk that was in his path. Several of the pokémon darted after him, and in the growing darkness Redclaw saw the flickering light from the flames glimmering against the buildings fade and vanish. The fire had died out.

Redclaw ran on, unable to hear the wing-beats of Thunder or the heracross due to the loud cries of his enemies chasing him. Frightened, he increased his pace as much as he could, hearing a particularly speedy vigoroth right behind him before its cries slowly faded into the distance. Even after none of the pokémon could catch up with him enough to follow him anymore, Redclaw kept running. He didn't stop until he had made it past the sign that stood in front of the city. Then he collapsed in a heap, exhausted.

After a short while, Thunder and the heracross both arrived at about the same time. Redclaw watched the blue bug type set down Stormblade gently, noticing that Stormblade's bandages had been torn accidentally by the heracross's claws.

"You shouldn't have gone in there," the newcomer told Redclaw and Thunder calmly. "It's not safe. A lot of pokémon come there to use the buildings for shelter, including small ones who forage for food elsewhere and come back there to rest and be safe from most predators, such as bird pokémon. It's hardly safer though…that big group of pokémon you saw…well those that are predators, hunt them, so they're always wary of any pokémon that looks dangerous. That big group of pokémon considers the city theirs…and they aren't friendly toward intruders who they think might be there to steal their food or water supplies. A lot of them take pleasure in fighting, too."

"We didn't know…we only came in there to look for water," Redclaw explained before Thunder could say anything. "We found some, but it had been polluted by a muk's poison. And he drank it…" He glanced toward Stormblade, who still lay unnaturally still on the ground.

The heracross worriedly looked down at the scyther, who now looked very pale, but was still breathing. "I don't know much about muk or grimer…" he began, "but I do know of something that might save him. It's been known to cure a lot of other types of poison and it might cure this. It'll be hard to find the herbs I need now that my forest has been destroyed, but I'll try my best to find them." He turned and quickly flew off, leaving the three travelers alone.

Redclaw lay down by Stormblade, deciding to watch over him until the heracross got back. He was glad to have found a pokémon so willing to help them even when he hadn't even known them before. He had also seemed very skilled in battle, which surprised Redclaw, considering that wild heracross usually didn't fight unless they absolutely had to. Remembering the scar over the heracross's left eye, Redclaw wondered if he had had to fight off enemies quite a lot.

Sitting a small distance away from the others, Thunder was gently licking the deep cut on her arm, paying Redclaw and Stormblade no heed. Sighing, Redclaw glanced back toward the silent city in the fading light of sunset, waiting for the strange heracross's return.


	30. Blazefang’s Departure

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 30- Blazefang's Departure**

Snowcrystal yawned, before resting her head on her paws. She hadn't been keeping watch for long, and she was already getting tired. She stood up and walked around, hoping that would help her keep awake. She did not want to be attacked by any potential enemies if she fell asleep. Sitting down, the growlithe drowsily glanced over the rocky plain, wondering if she should wake one of the others up.

Movement from nearby caught the growlithe's eye and she sat upright, instantly alert. Cautiously moving toward Wildflame, she prodded the houndoom with one forepaw.

"Wildflame, wake up. Something's moving out there."

Wildflame sat up, looking much less weary than Snowcrystal was. After all, she was a normally nocturnal pokémon. Quickly spotting the source of movement, she whispered, "There's only one of them. I don't think it's a threat, but let's check it out."

"All right," Snowcrystal whispered, padding forward carefully while Wildflame boldly approached the pokémon moving about in the dark. It didn't seem to notice as Wildflame crept around a boulder, giving it a closer look.

"It's nothing but a heracross," Wildflame whispered. "No problem for us. Let's go back."

Snowcrystal nodded tiredly in reply and the two turned around. Yet their whispers had attracted the heracross's attention, and he turned towards the boulder. Snowcrystal paused to glance back at him, noticing hostility in his yellow eyes.

"Who's there?" the heracross cried warningly, pausing to drop something that he was carrying on the ground as he neared the boulder where the two fire types hid.

Still not feeling threatened in the least, Wildflame boldly stepped around the large slab of stone, Snowcrystal following more timidly. "We're just resting over there," Wildflame told him, inclining with her head toward the place where Spark and Rosie slept. "We saw you from a distance and thought you might be one of those hostile fire or grass types." Wildflame didn't feel that it mattered if the heracross knew where they resting; heracross weren't predators, and thus wouldn't be territorial, but they were not prey either. Being far too tough to take down without risking serious injury, heracross were left alone by predators, and in turn left them alone. From what little Wildflame knew about them, they seemed to normally have little to do with species other than their own and butterfree.

The heracross didn't bother to ask about what Wildflame meant by the hostile grass and fire types, and instead leaned down to pick up the items he had dropped. Wildflame noticed pecha berries, among various types of plant leaves. Now that he knew Wildflame and Snowcrystal weren't a threat, he didn't seem to want to bother with them anymore.

"What's all that stuff?" Snowcrystal asked, glancing at the leaves and berries, obviously not realizing that the heracross seemed to want to be alone, as he had begun walking around, as if searching for something.

"Berries and herbs to help a sick pokémon," the heracross replied, not looking up as he paused to search through a group of bushes.

"Great!" Wildflame muttered, "That's all we need-local pokémon spreading disease around here!"

"It's not a disease," the heracross replied, beginning to search more frantically, "a scyther's been poisoned and I'm the only one around here who knows anything about healing."

"A scyther!" Snowcrystal exclaimed. "Poisoned? What did the scyther look like?"

Snowcrystal suddenly noticed Wildflame going slightly pale, with what looked like fear. A moment later, however, and she had shaken it off, giving the heracross an indifferent stare.

"Just like any scyther," the heracross replied, "only this one must have been injured or something. He had bandages and had obviously been to a pokémon center. He also looked like his leg had gotten crushed or some-"

"That's Stormblade!" Snowcrystal yelled. "Where is he? Can you take us to him? Is Thunder there?"

Wildflame didn't say a word, but she had suspected Stormblade was the scyther this heracross had found. She didn't understand what he had said about the 'pokémon center' much, but what he said was obviously true. This pokémon had found Stormblade, and if he told anyone anything, the others could very well figure out that she had been lying about him being taking by poachers.

"I don't know anyone named Thunder," the heracross replied, interrupting Wildflame's thoughts, "so I don't know what you mean. But if you know this scyther, I can take you to him…" His voice trailed off as he seemed to find what he was looking for, finding a few unripe oran berries nearby. Knowing that those would have to do, he turned to Snowcrystal and Wildflame again. "Follow me," he told them urgently, beginning to look worried, "we have to get back there fast."

"Wait," Snowcrystal told him, "let me get the others." Without waiting for an answer, she raced back to where Rosie and Spark lay, quickly rousing them and explaining to them as she led the way back to the heracross and Wildflame.

"You sure this guy knows where Stormblade is?" Spark asked as he darted beside Snowcrystal, his paws sending up puffs of ash as they raced over the burned soil near the destroyed forest.

"Yeah!" Snowcrystal replied. "He said Stormblade's poisoned. But he knows about healing! He can help him!"

"Hope so…" Spark replied uneasily. In the many battles he'd fought for Justin, he had only been poisoned once or twice, and Justin had immediately treated him. Never had the poison been anything serious enough to kill him or cause him excruciating pain, but that was because the poison types were not allowed to attack with extremely powerful poison in trainer battles. But out in the wild, it could be different. He shook away the thought.

Rosie followed behind the others more slowly, with Wildflame at her side. The ninetales was limping fast, despite her injury, and her nine tails streamed out behind her as she fought to keep up with the others, hopeful at the thought of their group being reunited again.

Wildflame, however, felt differently. If she couldn't somehow find a way to make what she had told them before not seem like it was a lie, she knew they would never trust her again.

* * *

Redclaw waited for what seemed like a long time, crouching beside Stormblade as he watched the city anxiously. Stormblade still showed no signs of stirring, though Redclaw had tried his best to wake him. Thunder was now lying down on the grass, not seeming concerned at all.

Redclaw could still hear Stormblade breathing, but it seemed to be growing shallower and weaker. He didn't understand-Stormblade should have woken up by now. Placing his paw lightly on Stormblade's shoulder, he shook him slightly, but got no response. Suddenly the sound of quick wing-beats overhead caused him to glance up, and the heracross he had met in the city landed quickly beside him.

"Did you find what you need to help him?" Redclaw asked anxiously.

"Yes," the bug type replied, "but he needs to eat it. Have you tried waking him up?" Redclaw nodded, and watched as the heracross set down the berries and leaves and tried to wake Stormblade.

Redclaw looked up in surprise as four other pokémon appeared, dashing toward him. One was the white growlithe he had seen when Master had ordered him to attack the intruders back near the dark forest, and he recognized the jolteon from that same battle too. With a leap of hope he realized that these must be Stormblade's friends.

Thunder looked up as the others approached, suddenly seeming hostile and wary. Quickly she backed away from the others, not wanting any of them to try and talk to her.

Snowcrystal stopped in front of Redclaw, Stormblade, and the heracross, looking horrified as she glanced over Stormblade. "Is he going to be ok?" she asked glancing to the heracross in alarm. Rushing closer, she tried to push the heracross aside, but Wildflame pulled her back by gripping her scruff.

"Leave them alone," she told her. "They're the ones that know what to do." Before Snowcrystal could protest, Wildflame carried her away, knowing that the small growlithe would probably just get in the way.

Wildflame and Rosie approached Stormblade, neither of them saying a word at first. Rosie looked shocked that Stormblade now had several new injuries, including a jagged cut across his head and new burns on his arms, legs, and neck. Spark looked completely horrified at the fact that the big and powerful scyther who had protected him in the wild and showed him how to hunt could look so pitifully weak now.

"You need him to wake up right?" Spark said quietly, stepping forward a bit more. "I think I can-"

"Spark, DON'T!" Rosie growled, knowing what he was about to do, but Spark ignored her, sending a tiny jolt of electricity into Stormblade's body.

At first Stormblade didn't move, and Spark cringed as Rosie shot him a furious glare, but then after a moment, he slowly began to stir. Spark carefully nudged him and Stormblade opened one eye before closing it again, lying still once more.

Redclaw realized that either he had realized that he needed to hold still, or he was simply too weak to move anymore. Redclaw knew that it was probably the latter, as Stormblade hadn't even made a sound. He probably just didn't have the strength.

Redclaw and the others watched as the heracross picked up one of the pecha berries, knowing that it was probably the most important of everything he had brought back. "Here, eat this," Redclaw said before taking the berry from the heracross and setting it beside Stormblade's mouth. However, Stormblade made no move to try and eat it, and continued to lay there motionless.

"I don't think he's going to be able to eat it," Thunder stated, walking over to the others and ignoring the surprised glances from Spark and Rosie. Redclaw slowly nodded; he wasn't sure if Stormblade was even able to move.

Picking up the pecha berry, the heracross carefully opened Stormblade's mouth, and crushed the berry in his claws, letting the sweet pecha juice drip into the scyther's mouth. "I think this is the best I can do," he said slowly, reaching for another berry to do the same. "At least until he starts to recover. I just hope it will be enough for now…I'm not really an experienced healer; I only know a few things, so I'm not entirely sure pecha berries are going to be enough. I think we can only hope for the best."

"But if he eats the berry juice, won't he get better?" Spark asked.

"This isn't like a small pokémon's tale," Rosie replied, turning to Spark. "Pecha berries don't cure poison instantly like they do in stories. And don't tell me you think an oran berry will suddenly make his wounds vanish."

"I know all that!" Spark replied, "It's just…pecha berries usually cured poison when I was a trainer pokémon, though they weren't as fast or effective as the medicine Justin would buy. But…I do know that that poison was never as bad…"

Only half listening to the others, Redclaw lay down as he watched Stormblade, who seemed to have slipped into unconsciousness again. The heracross left his pile of herbs nearby, having already used up the berries. A sudden thought struck him-this heracross had been such a big help to him and Stormblade, when they were complete strangers to him, and he hadn't even thanked him. Standing up again, Redclaw turned to the heracross and smiled slightly. "Thank you," he told him, "for helping us. If it weren't for you, Stormblade would never have had any chance at all." The heracross gave him a small smile back and Redclaw thought of something else.

"Why were you near that city if it was dangerous?" the arcanine asked. "And did you say your home was in that forest? The one that got burned down? Did you…wait…" he quickly mumbled, realizing that he had forgotten something. "What is your name?"

"Nightshade," the heracross replied. "I lived in that forest before it burned down. I know that the pokémon in that human place you left harmed forest pokémon who ventured too close, usually. Everyone there knew to avoid it. I assume you are travelers?"

Redclaw nodded. "Yes," he replied, "we're looking for a new home…well, some of us are."

"I'm looking for a new home too," Nightshade told Redclaw. "For a few days I tried to live in the rocky plains outside of the forest, but there's little food there. I decided to leave tonight, and while flying over that city, I spotted you."

"Well," Redclaw told him, "if we're all looking for something, we might as well look together, right? And we've been through a lot of dangers around these places. I'm sure you know some places better than we do too. We can help each other."

"I don't know," Nightshade whispered quietly, but to Redclaw's dismay, he didn't say anything more.

"We'll have to wait until Stormblade's a little better," Redclaw continued, giving the scyther another glance. It might have just been his imagination, but Stormblade's breathing seemed calmer now.

Nightshade nodded. "Like I said, I'm not a full healer," he replied, "but I was taught a few things from a heracross who was. I can show you what plants will help stop infection and ease pain, once it gets lighter."

Redclaw nodded and lay his head down on his paws, watching over Stormblade once again.

Snowcrystal watched Redclaw and Nightshade from a short distance, listening to their conversation. Looking up at Wildflame, she asked, "Shouldn't I go over there and see if Stormblade's all right?"

"He'll be fine," Wildflame replied, though she really didn't have much of an idea of how badly poisoned he could be, "just stay here. The others will take care of everything."

Snowcrystal sighed and sat down, watching Rosie and Spark lying a short distance away, both glad for a chance to rest after having to travel so far while injured, as they waited to hear whether Stormblade would be all right. Thunder had distanced herself from everyone else, lying underneath one of the few trees that grew in the area. Blood from a small but very deep cut on her arm was staining the dry grass beneath her, but she seemed too distracted by her thoughts to care. Snowcrystal wondered what had happened. Had Thunder started yet another fight? If she had, it had gotten the big arcanine in trouble too, from the look of him. She shuddered. The last thing they needed now was another fight. They were weak now, and would have a hard time finding food and water the next few days while they waited for Stormblade to recover from the poison.

_If he did recover…_

Pushing away that last thought, Snowcrystal scraped some scraps of dry grass into a small nest and curled up inside it, deciding to try and sleep. She would need to save her energy for tomorrow, if she was going to be of any help to her friends.

* * *

When Snowcrystal woke the next morning, she was surprised to find that she had slept long enough for it to be past sunrise. She stood up, stretched, and quickly walked over to where Wildflame now lay beside Stormblade, her tail tip resting on his shoulder. To her surprise, Stormblade was awake, though he didn't seem to be in any condition to answer any of her questions for her, and he didn't look much better than he had the night before. He was shaking all over and looked as if he was in pain and too exhausted to move, but Snowcrystal could see the remains of the herbs Nightshade had brought, and knew that Stormblade had to start getting better soon; at least he wasn't going to die.

Deciding it was best to let him rest, Snowcrystal walked up to Thunder instead. She wasn't sure that the scyther would be willing to talk to her, but she was too relieved to have found Thunder alive to care. "Thunder!" she cried, jumping playfully up to Thunder's side and resting her paws on her uninjured leg. "How did you escape from the poachers? Did you help that arcanine too?"

Wildflame lifted her head, the hairs on her pelt rising as she heard Snowcrystal's first question._ 'Think of a lie…'_ she thought to herself. _'If she says they weren't captured by poachers, make something up…'_

The houndoom tensed as she listened for Thunder's answer, her tail curling up stiffly as she watched the growlithe and the female scyther. Feeling Wildflame's tail move away from his shoulder, Stormblade opened his eyes wider and weakly glanced at her before closing them again.

Thunder glared at Snowcrystal, pushing the growlithe away with her leg. "I don't think they were poachers in the sense that you're thinking of," she replied, "but all humans are the same to me. We got away from them…that's all that matters."

Wildflame felt like breathing a sigh of relief. It seemed as if Thunder and Stormblade _had_ been taken away by some group of humans, and the others would understand if she told them that she had mistaken them for poachers if they really weren't; all humans looked the same to her. Hopefully though, no one would even bother to ask. Stormblade was far too weak to explain anything and they certainly wouldn't get much information out of Thunder. That, and the arcanine probably didn't know much either.

Wildflame looked up as Snowcrystal walked back toward her, after Thunder had told her to go away. The growlithe stopped to glance at Rosie and Spark, who were still asleep, and back at Wildflame. "Where are Redclaw and Nightshade?" she asked.

"Redclaw went hunting," Wildflame replied. "Nightshade should be back soon. He decided to stay with us for a while. He doesn't know if he wants to travel with us just yet."

"Wildflame…" Snowcrystal began, changing the subject, "I haven't seen any sign of Blazefang's pack in a while…it's worrying me. Do you think they might be planning something?"

"I don't know…" Wildflame replied, looking uncomfortable about answering the question. "Maybe they've just forgotten about us and moved on."

"Maybe…" Snowcrystal answered, not convinced. She turned away from Wildflame and Stormblade, deciding that she wanted to be alone with her thoughts for now. Something was worrying her.

The white growlithe walked slowly over the sharp rocks littering the ground, not even turning her head at the sound of a few pidgey or spearow nearby. After a short while, she stopped on top of a large, flat rock and sat down, looking out over the plains.

She knew that Stormblade couldn't travel until he was at least cured of the poison, yet she felt a growing worry about the delay. Something in the back of her mind told her she was taking too long-resting too often. She needed to find Articuno quicker, to journey faster than the pace she was going. Something told her that it was urgent.

* * *

For the next week, the group concentrated on resting and regaining their strength. Nightshade stayed with the group, helping to find herbs or berries for those who were injured. Stormblade was still gradually recovering from the effects of the poison, and some of his wounds which weren't caused by Blazefang's Shadowflare attack were beginning to heal.

Redclaw had been trying to teach Thunder how to hunt, but without much success. Frustrated, the arcanine had realized how hard it was to teach a pokémon of a different species hunting techniques, when he hardly knew anything about the way scyther hunted. After the two returned from another unsuccessful hunting attempt, Redclaw noticed Snowcrystal approaching him hesitantly.

"Do you think Stormblade's fit to travel yet?" the small growlithe asked.

Redclaw shook his head. "I doubt he'll be fit to travel for a long time," he replied. "He_ shouldn't_ be traveling at all while he has those wounds anyways."

Snowcrystal knew that he was right. "He can't stay here either," she whispered. "It's too dangerous, and there isn't much food…_we_ can't stay here much longer."

"I know," Redclaw replied sadly. Over the past week, he had heard all about Snowcrystal's quest, Spark, Stormblade, and Rosie's goals to find new homes, the Forbidden Attacks, and Blazefang's pack. He too realized that it was urgent that they keep traveling, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that if they forced Stormblade to travel, he would surely die. "You see, Stormblade's not going to make it much further if those wounds don't heal. When we have to leave, when there's no more prey, we'll have to make sure not to travel too far at one time."

"Why don't we just do Stormblade a favor and put him out of his misery?" Thunder replied. "That would solve everyone's problem."

"What? No!" Snowcrystal cried, as both she and Redclaw turned toward Thunder, shocked.

"It was just a suggestion," Thunder muttered. "And not a bad one in my opinion."

Back with the rest of the group, Rosie looked up as the three pokémon returned. "Any luck?" she asked.

Redclaw shook his head. "There's hardly any prey," he replied. "This isn't a good place to teach someone to hunt."

"Which makes me glad I'm not a predator," Nightshade muttered from where he was trying to persuade a reluctant Spark to eat some foul-smelling herbs.

"I caught two pidgey this afternoon," Wildflame told the others, "We can share those today."

Under the cool evening sky, the seven friends gathered to share Wildflame's catch, while Nightshade set off to find food of his own. Stormblade, noticing that Wildflame had given him a bigger share than the others, gave most of his share to Redclaw, not feeling very hungry.

Snowcrystal sat up after finishing her small meal, cleaning her forepaws of any traces of blood. "At least we know that not all the prey has left this area," she stated.

"Yeah, but it's getting harder to find any," Wildflame replied. "We need to move on, and soon."

The others nodded reluctantly. Snowcrystal heard the flutter of wings as Nightshade returned. "I'm not sure which direction you'll be leaving, but that'll depend on whether I stay with you or not," he told them.

"But we need you!" Spark cried. "You're the smartest icky-medicine-finding heracross I've ever known!"

Nightshade paused for a moment, seeming to like the thought of being able to be part of a group and able to help others, then sighed. "I'm not sure yet," he told them. "But I know that I can stay as long as you stay here. There's enough food for me for now. And in case I do leave, do you remember what herbs cure infection and ease pain?"

Wildflame and Rosie nodded; Nightshade had taught them before. Spark half-nodded and then shook his head, realizing he didn't remember. Rosie rolled her eyes.

"I'll be sure to teach you all then," Nightshade replied, and Spark looked relieved.

As the sky darkened, Snowcrystal, Redclaw, Rosie, and Spark all curled up beneath one of the few trees in the area, while Nightshade flew up to a high tree branch. Wildflame, being a nocturnal pokémon, decided to keep watch, while Thunder found a place to herself to sleep. Stormblade decided to sleep alone as well, and lay down beside a large rock, laying his tattered wings across his back.

Snowcrystal snuggled up against one of Rosie's bushy tails as she watched her crystal glow a dull red. She yawned and closed her eyes, letting sleep slowly overcome her.

* * *

Blazefang and his pack had not gotten far. Confused and lost, they had wandered around in circles for the past week or so, before stumbling upon Stonedust city and deciding that it would be better to seek out Wildflame and see if she had found out anything about Articuno. Blazefang realized that it would be next to impossible to search for him without any clues, no matter how fast they had traveled. Their wanderings had simply been a waste of time.

Now further away from the city and any sign of poacher traps, Blazefang and the pack rested. Boneclaw had recently reported that he'd picked up Wildflame's scent and the scent of the growlithe and some of her companions, but Blazefang insisted they wait there until morning.

During the night, the houndour were much better hunters, and many of them were taking this opportunity to catch prey for themselves and then relax. Blazefang, however, wasn't so calm.

Coming near the burned forest had spooked him, and he was reminded once again of how devastating Shadowflare really was. Unintentionally, his thoughts wandered back to the scyther that his attack had mutilated, and he wondered if he was still alive. A while ago, Wildflame had told him that the group had left him behind. He was probably dead.

Blazefang tried not to look at the burned forest anymore. He remembered how quickly, almost without thinking, he had used Shadowflare the second time, and shuddered at the thought of having to use it again.

Boneclaw, who was eating a spearow he'd caught, glanced sideways at Blazefang. "Something troubling you?" he asked, as he lifted his head away from the prey he held between his paws.

"It's nothing," Blazefang replied, looking irritated. "We've found Wildflame's scent. Everything's going well."

Not convinced, Boneclaw continued to eat, knowing that his leader probably didn't want to be bothered. Suddenly a shout from one of the pack members startled both of them.

"Bl-blazefang! There's some strange pokémon coming toward us…"

Aggravated, Blazefang pushed himself to his paws and walked over to the one who had shouted, pushing past her and climbing the small rocky hill from where she'd been watching. The sight that greeted him nearly took his breath away.

Pokémon, hundreds of them, were all making their way toward the hill in one vast group. Most of them, Blazefang could see, were common species, but there were quite a few larger and more powerful ones. Blazefang was both confused and startled by the fact that the group consisted of both predators and prey, all mingled together. Though sunset had long past, many of the pokémon in the massive assembly were pokémon species who normally hunted or foraged during the day.

"Who are they?" Blazefang asked, his gaze traveling over them, able to see them well because of the flickering flames of species like ponyta and charmeleon.

"I…I don't know," the smaller houndour replied. "This is too weird…"

Blazefang turned and walked back to the pack, feeling worried and confused. As he approached them, a large pidgeot soared overhead, making Blazefang cringe as it emitted a shrill cry. It wheeled back toward the hill, when the first shapes of the enemy pokémon emerged over the rocks at the top and walked steadily toward them.

The houndour all shrank back, their teeth bared in a snarl, but Blazefang silenced them. "They're probably just passing through," he told them. "I'll deal with this. Boneclaw, come with me."

The big houndour nodded and followed Blazefang as he approached the first few pokémon, who had stopped at the bottom of the hill.

They were only a small group out of the much bigger one, and this small group seemed to consist of some of the stronger pokémon. Blazefang looked over the ones standing on the hill, a charmeleon, an ivysaur, a rapidash, and, to his dismay, a female scyther. Memories flooded through his mind of the pack members who had died from the injuries that other scyther had given them. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. There were more pressing matters to deal with. At the front of this small group stood a still vaporeon, and beside him, an espeon bearing a black collar with a splash of red on it.

"Who are you?" Blazefang asked, trying to break the silence. "This…this isn't our territory. We're travelers. You can go right on through!"

The vaporeon, who Blazefang assumed was the leader, ignored his statement and walked forward with graceful strides. "My name is Cyclone," the eevee evolution told him, with no hint of emotion or expression on his calm features. "These pokémon…" He gestured toward the four standing behind him on the hill, "are a part of my army. In a very short time, I have recruited many, and in time, this army will grow in numbers."

Blazefang saw a flicker of unease pass between the charmeleon and ivysaur, and he realized that the two looked…worried. It suddenly dawned on him that these two hadn't joined this army willingly, though how he knew that, he wasn't sure.

Cyclone continued speaking in his calm voice, waving his tail toward the espeon who stood behind him. "This is Solus," Cyclone explained, and the espeon's face broke into a wide grin, "being one of my most trusted, I leave the others in his paws while I am away. We have come to ask you of something. Do you know a houndour called…_Blazefang_?"

Blazefang took a step back, shocked, but afraid to lie. "I am Blazefang," he said.

Not a flicker of surprise or amusement crossed Cyclone's face. "Well, that makes things easier," he replied. "Not long ago, a pidgeot we came across told us of a battle he witnessed. He said that a houndour whom the others had called Blazefang…used a strange attack on a scyther. That attack, I believe, was Shadowflare."

Blazefang froze, every hair on his pelt bristling. Something was wrong here…something was very wrong. Whatever this vaporeon wanted, he wanted nothing to do with it. "I don't know what you're talking about…" Blazefang replied. "I don't know what Shadowflare is. I was using flamethrower on that scy-"

"Solus…" Cyclone said calmly, almost with an air of annoyance, and the espeon focused his glowing eyes on Blazefang.

To the houndour's dismay, images…memories, of the time he'd first used Shadowflare surfaced in his mind. The strange feeling, the way his eyes glowed a bright yellow, and the way it followed the scyther through the air and wounded him so severely… And then after that, the image of the ursaring and the burning forest crossed his thoughts. Solus's eyes stopped glowing.

The espeon shook his head, muttering in a mock-disappointed voice, "lying's gonna get you nowhere you know! That was no normal attack you used, it was Shadowflare through and through. Fit the description of the attack _perfectly_. Oh Cyclone, if only you could have seen the look on that scyther's face. Priceless! I'm glad your memory was so vivid, Blazefang! Haha!"

Blazefang stared at the espeon in disbelief. He had read his mind…there was nothing lying would do now. And the fact that Solus was _laughing_ at having seen the memory of the scyther getting hurt so badly suddenly made Blazefang wish he were anywhere else but there.

Boneclaw didn't look as surprised, but simply looked confused. The rest of Blazefang's pack had gathered closer to listen, most of them looking frightened or puzzled.

"You see," Cyclone said calmly, "I have gathered this army to help me find and track down each of the Forbidden Attacks. I believe that with them on our side, no human weapon can stand against us."

Blazefang looked confused. "H-human…weapon?"

Cyclone gave him one of his rare faint smiles. "Yes. For too long humans have caused pain and misery to pokémon. We are here to set them free…to show the humans that pokémon are not meant to be slaves. Our land is not for their taking, and we are not tools to use for work or for their silly battles. Nor are we pets to keep locked inside a house. And nor are we things to be beaten and tortured."

"You're crazy!" Blazefang shouted. "If you want to wage war against the humans, be my guest! But I've never even come in contact with one-I don't have anything against them. This isn't my fight!"

Cyclone didn't seem angry or disappointed. The vaporeon was about to speak when Solus spoke up.

"Can I torture him to make him join?" the espeon asked, grinning widely. "I've been practicing-"

"No," Cyclone replied. "It wouldn't be wise. Not for him. However…if he is unwilling to join…we could always kill him. After all, if the legend is correct, Forbidden Attacks get passed on to the nearest pokémon of the same type once the first user passes away…and I'm sure there are plenty of willing fire types here."

Blazefang stared at Cyclone in utter shock, while the charmeleon standing behind Cyclone looked suddenly pale, and the rapidash looked eager. Blazefang still stood as if frozen, paralyzed with disbelief and fear. "I…I…"

"We'll give you until tomorrow to make your decision," Cyclone replied calmly, turning away from him and beginning to walk up the hill.

"See ya in the morning!" Solus cried mockingly as he followed the other pokémon over the hill and out of sight.

Blazefang stood where he was, staring off into space, his body rigid and stiff.

Then he ran.

"Blazefang-what?" one of the houndour called as the leader bolted past him, but Blazefang gave him no heed. The houndour kept running, not letting exhaustion or even cuts on his paws from the rocks slow him down. Terror filled his mind at the thought that someone from Cyclone's army could be following him. He kept running. He had to get away…far away…at any and all costs.

* * *

Boneclaw looked around at the astonished group of houndour, his gaze traveling over each of their startled faces.

"He's not coming back…" one of them whispered, "are you going to be our leader now?"

Boneclaw wasn't sure what to say. He didn't know how to be a leader, and he wasn't sure what the pack should do now. "Well…I…" he began.

"I say we join Cyclone," a small, mangy houndour called Flarefire spoke up. "From the looks of it he forced most of those pokémon to join him. I say we do it willingly before he decides to make us."

"What?" another houndour cried. "Have you forgotten about the clan? About Articuno?"

"The clan will be fine!" Flarefire snapped. "I say we talk to this Cyclone and see if there's any way this army can benefit us."

Boneclaw was ready to argue, but he realized Flarefire was right. Talking to Cyclone would be better. It would be wiser to try to gain the vaporeon's favor than be forced into serving him.

* * *

Cyclone looked up as the entire houndour pack, minus their leader, skidded to a halt at the base of the hill in front of the large army of resting or sparring pokémon. The vaporeon walked slowly over to them.

"So you want to talk?" he asked them before any of the houndour had said anything. "May I ask…where is Blazefang?"

"He ran off," Boneclaw replied truthfully.

"Disappointing, but it's no problem at all," Cyclone replied. "Now, what did you come here to tell me?"

"We want to know how long you expect us to serve under your leadership if we join you," Boneclaw told him.

"As long as it takes to stop the humans," Cyclone replied. "And I can assure you, it won't be an awfully long time, depending on how fast we can locate the other Forbidden Attacks." He paused for a moment, then said, "I can tell you want something in return. What is it? Food? Territory?-"

"Yes," Boneclaw replied, feeling excited. "Our territory by the mountains isn't large enough, and there are these growlithe-"

"And you want their territory, am I correct?" Cyclone asked, and Boneclaw nodded. "That's a simple thing to ask," the vaporeon continued, "very simple. We are very much capable of driving out a few growlithe for you. If you join me, consider it done."

Excitement and eagerness rippled through the houndour pack, and Boneclaw smiled.

"Then we're in."

* * *

Blazefang was afraid he was going to collapse from exhaustion. He was running blindly now, paying no heed to his tired limbs and cut paws as he blundered through the darkness, ignoring all sound and scent. Then suddenly, he burst into a clearing full of other pokémon.

Blazefang stopped dead in his tracks-he recognized many of them. The white growlithe, the jolteon, Wildflame, and one of the two scyther were all staring at him in shock. Blazefang took one look at Stormblade's wounds and reeled back, shocked and disgusted.

Suddenly long, sharp claws sank into the fur of his neck and he was lifted bodily upward. He found himself staring into the yellow eyes of a large heracross, who held him as effortlessly as if he weighed nothing. He struggled, but could not loosen the heracross's powerful grip. He found himself staring into the bug type's eyes again, noticing the long thick scar that ran over one of his eyes.

"Stop!" Blazefang gasped.

The heracross's eyes narrowed, as a confused arcanine and an angry ninetales approached them. "What are you doing here?" the heracross growled.

"Nightshade, put him down!" Wildflame cried, and Blazefang sensed worry in her voice.

"Why?" Rosie asked. "Didn't he drive you out for evolving? And he made his pack attack us…and…just look what he did to STORMBLADE!"

Hearing this, Nightshade's grip tightened on Blazefang, and the terrified houndour knew that if he tried to use a fire attack, this heracross could snap his neck.

"Let him go," a voice spoke up, "he's not here to attack us." Blazefang turned in shock to see that the speaker was Stormblade, the scyther he had wounded. "Just send him away…you don't need to hurt him."

Nightshade's gaze softened a bit and he lowered Blazefang to the ground, pointing in the direction he had come. "Get out," he muttered.

Blazefang realized that these pokémon must have told this heracross about him. He could scarcely believe that the one who had told him to stop had been the scyther he'd injured so badly. Yet all the same, it was clear he was not welcome here. But even though they were his enemies, he was terrified of running blindly in the dark again.

"But…I have nowhere to go!" Blazefang gasped.

Before anyone could say any more, a noise from ahead startled Blazefang, and he watched as the female scyther stepped out from behind a tree, carrying the limp and bloody form of a pidgey in her mouth. Seeing him, she froze, dropping the prey. Then without any warning, she ran toward him with an enraged growl, scythes raised and ready to kill.

Blazefang leaped to the side, feeling the scythe scrape along one of the bone-like bands on his back. He landed roughly on all fours, while Thunder turned and ran at him again before anyone could try and stop her.

Blazefang felt a dark feeling creep over him, and everything around him began to take on a yellowish tinge. He shook his head, feeling strong energy starting to pulsate through his body. He couldn't use Shadowflare…not again. But yet Thunder was trying to kill him and enemy pokémon were all around him…did he really have a choice?

Blazefang leaped away as Thunder slashed at him again, ignoring the cries of Wildflame and some of the others. Nightshade rushed to stop her, but Thunder moved too fast for him, heading straight for Blazefang again. He was finding hard to fight it now; every instinct was screaming at him to use the attack. Ignoring it, he fired a flamethrower, which Thunder dodged easily.

Thunder swept the dull side of her scythe at him, knocking his off his feet and pinning him down. "Well…" she growled angrily. "_Look who it is_…"


	31. A New Danger Arises

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 31- A New Danger Arises**

Blazefang leaned back, ignoring the sharp rocks that pricked at his fur as Thunder's scythe came closer, the sharp edge hovering dangerously close to his neck.

"Stop!" Blazefang cried. "You're insane! Listen to the others, they said that-" The houndour gave a yelp and moved to the side as Thunder's scythe came down, the moment slowed only by the deep cut in her arm.

Blazefang hurriedly backed away as Thunder dove at him again. However, something stopped her in her tracks. Redclaw now held tightly onto one of the scyther's wings. Angrily, Thunder turned to face him. "What are you doing?" she shouted. "Let me go…or I'll make you!"

Redclaw didn't want to obey her, but seeing the look in her eyes, he realized that if he didn't, someone was surely going to get hurt. He knew that even with a type disadvantage and all her injuries, Thunder could rip him to shreds if she wanted to; she hadn't been one of Master's most favored pokémon for nothing. Reluctantly, he let her go.

Thunder dashed toward Blazefang again, and Redclaw felt an eerie feeling creep through his body as Blazefang's eyes suddenly seemed overcast with yellow. However, before Thunder could strike, Nightshade had quickly darted in her path, blocking the deadly blade with his long horn.

As the two struggled against each other, Blazefang faced the other pokémon. "All I want is for you to _listen_ to me!" he shouted, his eyes loosing their yellowish glow.

Nightshade had managed to grab both of Thunder's arms in his claws. "Stop this!" he cried, staring into her fierce eyes. "Let's listen to him! Then he'll leave!"

"No!" Thunder growled, fighting against Nightshade's grip. The heracross held her arms firmly, ignoring the blows as she tried to kick him to get him to release his grip.

Stormblade glanced over to the two struggling pokémon as he painfully propped himself up with his scythes. "Stop!" he cried, and Thunder turned to stare at him angrily. "He might have something important to say, and either way, he's not causing us any harm. Don't…don't…_kill_ him…"

Somehow, this seemed to snap Thunder out of it, and she turned and pulled away from Nightshade and walked back toward the tree where she had been resting. "He'd better make it quick!" she growled, leaning against the tree and watching Blazefang as if she still wished to sink her blade into his throat.

Blazefang was still gasping for breath; Thunder's attack had just made him more panicked and exhausted. "Learn to keep her under control!" he snarled under his breath. "I already have enough trouble with _one_ psycho wanting to kill me!"

"What do you mean?" Rosie asked, her teeth bared in a snarl. "Did one of your houndour slaves finally show he had some sense and rebel against you?"

"No," Blazefang replied, shaking his head as he walked forward. Snowcrystal felt a small prickle of unease as she noticed that Blazefang hardly seemed to react to the insult. "There's an army…of pokémon," the houndour continued. "From what I could gather they force nearly every able bodied pokémon they come across to join them…they even tortured some of them…" He remembered the vast groups of common species he had seen amongst the others in the army, and Solus's words about torturing pokémon in order to get them to join. "And their leader…" he continued uneasily, "is a vaporeon called Cyclone. He wants to use me in some war he's waged against humans somewhere or else kill me so one of his followers will gain the Forbidden Attack."

Everyone else glanced at each other, confused and alarmed at this statement. "Forbidden Attack…" Spark mumbled quietly.

Blazefang nodded. "He wants to track down all the Forbidden Attacks and he's got plenty of followers to help him. I don't know what he's promised or what he's threatened them with...but it's clear that if he ran into you, he'd try to make all of you who aren't badly injured join him…and he wouldn't take no for an answer either."

For a moment, silence fell upon the small group as they stared at the houndour in disbelief. "That doesn't make sense!" Rosie snarled, breaking the silence. "How can one vaporeon do all this? He couldn't have possibly forced so many pokémon to join him even if he did bribe some of his followers. I think-"

"_I_ think we should find out for ourselves whether or not he's telling the truth," Nightshade interrupted. "Is the army nearby?" he asked Blazefang. "If so, I can fly overhead and see if this is really a threat or just a story."

"Not far from here," Blazefang replied, pointing with his snout in the direction that he had come from. "Go that way. The army lies beyond a large hill. You'll see them there-"

Without waiting for him to finish Nightshade took off, leaving Blazefang standing alone in the midst of the others, feeling weak and vulnerable in the presence of his enemies. For a while they sat in silence, and Blazefang tried to avert his eyes from the awful wounds covering Stormblade's body, left exposed by the many large rips and tears in the tattered and filthy bandages.

After what seemed like a long while, the heracross returned, a grim look on his face. "The houndour was right," he told the others reluctantly. "I saw a very large group of pokémon in the area where Blazefang told me to look. Some of them, an espeon and a scyther, were leading back what looked to be some pokémon who had escaped from the burning forest. One of them was fighting the whole way." He shook his head sadly. "It seems they really are looking for new recruits and will soon have flying pokémon looking around this way too. There were several flying types around, and I only narrowly avoided being seen."

"See?" Blazefang told them, "I was telling the truth! They-"

"What are we supposed to do?" Snowcrystal asked, glancing around at the others in worry. "If all this is true they'll force us to join that army and leave Stormblade and Rosie to fend for themselves."

"I say we start moving again!" Spark answered. "Or at least find a safe place to hide until this…Cyclone, or whoever, passes by."

"But if they're after Blazefang they're sure to search this area more thoroughly," Rosie said quietly. "We should get out while we can."

"That's right!" Spark agreed.

"But how can we?" Snowcrystal asked. "Stormblade's still sick…"

"And he's not getting any better," Thunder muttered. "We should just go. It'll make no difference for him how many days we wait."

"That's not true," Redclaw replied with a disapproving glance at Thunder. "However, it _is_ best that we leave this place. Is there anywhere we can hide for now, Nightshade?"

Blazefang listened intently, hardly noticing that the others seemed to have forgotten he was there. The heracross, the one called Nightshade, thought for a moment before replying.

"Based on what I've seen and the houndour's word, Cyclone will be looking for any healthy pokémon to join him, regardless of species. Those who had homes in the forest no longer have any shelter, and that army will probably end up stumbling across some of them, if not many, I'm afraid. Apart from the forest, there isn't much shelter around these areas, other than the human town where I met Redclaw…which of course, isn't safe. And the forest, as you know, has burned to the ground." Blazefang shifted uneasily at the last statement, and the heracross continued. "The only thing I can think of are the hills to the north of here…if we can get past that area, Cyclone's pokémon might not venture that far."

"Well, that seems easy enough," Spark stated happily.

"Easy!" Blazefang exclaimed. "Cyclone's probably going to track me down and what if he does chose to-"

"Who cares?" Rosie growled. "You're certainly not coming with us!"

"Quiet!" Nightshade told them. "What matters is that we all get out of this army's way. Though if Cyclone's going to send out pokémon to search for Blazefang…they'll probably be looking for other strong pokémon too. No one's safe from them while we're here."

"I don't know…" Wildflame whispered. "This…this just seems too strange. I still don't see how all those pokémon are willing to join that vaporeon and force others to as well."

"They must have no other choice," Redclaw replied grimly.

"Well, I think it's certain we will have to keep moving," Snowcrystal told the others. "We need to leave now and get out of this army's way. But…do you think you'll be able to make it?" As she made the last statement, she turned to Stormblade, the only pokémon who hadn't taken part in the conversation so far.

The scyther didn't answer, and merely stared silently at the ground.

"He doesn't have a choice," Rosie told Snowcrystal firmly.

"We could always go and leave him here…then come back later after the army is gone," Spark suggested.

Snowcrystal shot Spark a glare, obviously disapproving of the idea. "We can't just-"

"Uh…I think you're not realizing something," Blazefang whispered timidly. "If pokémon are going to search, we'd be easily spotted trying to travel through a bunch of hills, no matter how fast we were going. Is…is there are another way?" he asked the heracross, giving him a fearful glance.

"You're right…" the heracross replied reluctantly. "The hills would take at least a day to travel through, but for a powerful flying pokémon it would only take a short time. The only other place I can think of is Stonedust City…" he paused, seeing several members of the group flinch visibly at the mention of the city, and then whispered, "unless…"

"Unless…what?" Spark asked, while everyone gave Nightshade a look of mixed curiosity and dread, knowing that the suggestion he was about to make probably wasn't a very pleasant option.

"There is…another way…through the hills," Nightshade continued. "A cave that leads right under them and to various other areas...Cyclone's pokémon won't follow us through there and flying pokémon can't see us, plus the cave is damp and rocky so it's near impossible to follow a scent in there."

"That's perfect!" Spark cried happily, sounding relieved that the news hadn't been as bad as he'd thought it would be.

Nightshade gave him a worried glance and sighed. "It's not a straight tunnel or a small group of caverns, Spark, but a massive cave system. It has many exits...the only trouble is finding those exits. It leads very deep underground, and from what I've heard from pokémon who have gone through it, it's nothing short of a gigantic maze."

A silence followed this statement, until Spark spoke up loudly. "I vote no cave!" the jolteon cried, giving Nightshade an irritated glance as if he was annoyed that he had suggested it.

"I'd be willing to risk it," Wildflame told Nightshade. "It would be better than to be forced into some army fighting for a cause that has nothing to do with me. Plus if these pokémon are willing to kill for Forbidden Attacks or torture pokémon into obeying them, I don't want to be anywhere _near_ them."

"It's probably our best chance," Redclaw agreed reluctantly. "If anything, we might be able to hide near the entrance until the army passes by…"

"You'd be waiting an awful long time," Blazefang growled. "Tell me where the cave is. I'm going."

Nightshade was about to reply when an earsplitting screech rent the air. The heads of all nine pokémon lifted toward the sky as a rather large and fierce looking noctowl swooped overhead, its talons coming nearly close enough to brush Redclaw's thick mane. His eyes connected with Blazefang's for a brief moment, and without saying a word, the noctowl flew off, heading in the direction that Blazefang had come.

"That was one of them!" Blazefang whispered, leaping to his feet with a look of surprised alarm etched across his face. "He's gone to tell the army…there won't _be_ a place to hide. Where is the cave?"

"Great!" Rosie growled. "Now the army's going to come right to us thanks to you!" She gave Blazefang a glare and looked to Nightshade. "They won't be able to follow us easily through that cave. If we cross through there I think we'll be able to avoid them and then find somewhere else we can rest."

Redclaw nodded. "I guess the only way to avoid this whole mess _is_ to risk going through the cave," he agreed. "I don't know how dangerous this army really is, but avoiding it is certainly the best option. We'll follow you, Nightshade."

"We should leave immediately," Nightshade told him with a nod. "I didn't like the look of those pokémon in that army. Some were quite fearful and others were acting downright cruel to the newer recruits they were bringing in. Follow me; I know a quick route to the caves. Wildflame and Spark, you help Rosie keep up. As for Stormblade…can you carry him on your back, Redclaw?"

Neither Redclaw nor Stormblade looked pleased at this suggestion. It was clear from Redclaw's expression that he didn't fancy getting any bad cuts on his back while Stormblade just looked as if the very thought of it was humiliating enough on its own. However, seeing that there was no other way to travel quickly, Stormblade allowed Nightshade to assist him onto the reluctant arcanine's back.

Redclaw stood up slowly, trying not to jostle Stormblade who now lay across his back, looking thoroughly embarrassed about it. "Just don't cut off any of my fur," Redclaw muttered under his breath.

"Just try not to run too fast," Stormblade replied, gritting his teeth against the pain as Redclaw started to move forward after the others who had begun to follow Nightshade.

Blazefang began to trot after them, but stopped in his tracks as Rosie glared at him. "Don't think you're following us!" she spat. "They're mostly after_you_. We're not going to let you put us in any more danger!"

"I'm going to that cave!" Blazefang snarled back and continued to follow, and no one bothered to try and stop him again.

As quickly as they could manage while still keeping pace with the injured pokémon, the group followed Nightshade through the moonlit plain, heading for the tall grassy hills that could now be seen faintly against the darkened sky. The journey was very uncomfortable for both Redclaw and Stormblade; Stormblade's scythes kept nicking Redclaw by accident, and nearly every movement Redclaw made caused Stormblade even more pain. Rosie was faring better, as she had become somewhat accustomed to using only three legs, and after eating some of the berries Nightshade had found, the pain wasn't unbearable.

Blazefang trailed after the group, glad that his dark pelt would make it difficult for most flying types to see him from above. A few bird pokémon passed over them through the air, though Blazefang had heard Redclaw point out to Snowcrystal that they could be just solitary pokémon out hunting.

Never pausing to rest, the group of pokémon followed Nightshade silently through the night, their paws hardly making a sound as they trotted quickly together, keeping their eyes on the shapes of the hills that loomed ever closer, and the heracross that guided them.

Just when Blazefang began to feel as if he would pass out if he had to run any longer, they had reached the foot of the hills, and Nightshade told them to rest. Under the cover of darkness and the shelter of the large stones at the base of the hills, the pokémon all huddled together, trying to catch their breath.

Redclaw lay down, while Stormblade slowly crawled off his back and onto the ground. "Never…again…" he whispered to the arcanine, thinking back on how painful and uncomfortable the swift ride had been. Had Redclaw been moving slower, however, he might not have minded as much. Rosie was curled up beside Redclaw, looking more exhausted than anyone, and Spark wasn't much better off.

Blazefang looked warily to the group but kept his distance, though he was too weary to look for the cave himself. Instead, he lay down against the cool stone, closing his eyes and trying not to think of the danger he was in.

After a few minutes, Nightshade told them to get up again. Now that they were close to the cave's entrance and in the shelter of some tall rocks, Redclaw did not have to carry Stormblade, though the scyther still had to rely heavily on Wildflame to help him walk. As the houndoom followed the others to where Nightshade was leading them, she was forced to walk at a slow pace so that Stormblade could keep up with her. She knew he was struggling just to walk even with her help, and every so often he would make small cries or whimpers of pain. Turning her head slightly, she could see Blazefang trailing after them timidly, trying not to be noticed. Sighing, she turned and focused instead on following the others ahead of her.

She stopped and let Stormblade lean against her for support when Nightshade and the others halted in front of a gaping hole in the stony side of one of the hills, leading deep underground. Wildflame felt a warm breeze emitting from the cave, ruffling her fur.

"So this is it?" Spark asked from up ahead, his voice being carried away by the breeze, making it harder for Wildflame and Stormblade, who stood further away, to hear. "It looks rather…obvious, don't you think?"

Rosie turned her head toward Blazefang, baring her teeth in a snarl. "It's going to be pretty obvious if they run across it while tracking _him_!" she growled.

"I don't think we have to worry," Nightshade replied calmly. "I believe that if some of the pokémon in Cyclone's army are from the forest, they will know of this cave, and most likely avoid it. And I doubt that even those who don't know will bother searching through it for one pokémon. And even if they did, it's unlikely that they would succeed in finding what they were searching for."

"I say we drive Blazefang off before we do anything else," Rosie growled, and Wildflame stiffened, shooting a warning glance at Blazefang, who hadn't seemed to have heard.

Blazefang took the hint and slowly stood up, ready to run or fight as some of the other pokémon turned to look at him. However, there would be no time for a battle. Another loud screech sounded above them, and a pidgeot, followed by two noctowl, landed between Stormblade and Blazefang. Around the moonlit area, grass rustled and parted, revealing the forms of various other types of pokémon, all facing the travelers. "Stay where you are," the pidgeot told them loudly. "I have a message from Cyclone."

Blazefang took one look at them and bolted into the cave. The others stood up, and Redclaw, Nightshade, and Thunder walked forward, a dangerous gleam in their eyes.

"We've heard about Cyclone," Redclaw growled. "And we want nothing to do with this. Leave!"

Snowcrystal noticed a few of the pokémon dart into the cave after Blazefang, while the rest of the strangers approached the group. Wildflame and Stormblade moved closer to the others as Redclaw and Nightshade stood in front, with Thunder coming to stand beside them. "Get in the cave!" Redclaw hissed at the others, and Snowcrystal, Spark, Rosie, and Wildflame, helping Stormblade, vanished into the cave, almost immediately becoming shrouded in darkness.

Snowcrystal could hear Redclaw's voice echoing outside, and Wildflame led them down one of the many black tunnels, where she crouched against the cave wall, Stormblade at her side. The others crouched down too, hoping to remain hidden until Redclaw and the others returned.

Wildflame turned toward Snowcrystal, an annoyed look in her eyes. "Hide that stone!" she growled, eying the glowing red crystal around the growlithe's neck. Snowcrystal quickly obeyed, covering it with her paws. Suddenly the sound of frantic pawsteps in their direction caused Snowcrystal to look up.

"Redclaw…?" she called, standing upright.

"Get down!" Wildflame hissed, pulling Snowcrystal back against the wall and covering the crystal again. The dark shapes of two four-legged pokémon who were too small to be Redclaw darted around a corner in the tunnel they had come from and began to head right towards them.

Snowcrystal's eyes widened in fear, the faintest traces of her crystal's light from beneath her paws the only thing making her able to distinguish the shapes of the pokémon from the darkness.

Suddenly the pokémon running in front gave a shriek of mortified terror, and Snowcrystal's eyes widened as he vanished before her very eyes. The second pokémon froze, then quickly bolted back the way he had come, the quest to find Blazefang and any potential new recruits for Cyclone forgotten. Snowcrystal stood up and walked forward, wondering where the other pokémon had vanished to.

She soon found out.

Just ahead of her, filling nearly the whole cavern, was a massive black pit that reached deep into the depths of the cave, dark and forbidding. She heard a faint yet sickening crunch as the pokémon's body landed far below. She shuddered, backing away, her eyes wide with fright.

Rosie peered forward, using the full light from Snowcrystal's crystal to see the dark hole. "We would have fallen in there if we hadn't kept so close to the cave wall," she whispered, sounding horrified.

"That would not be fun," Spark stated obviously as he stood up and headed back along the narrow ridge separating the wall from the pit. "Let's move to a safer spot, all right?" he asked, his voice sounding shaky.

One by one the pokémon filed after him, Stormblade with the help of Wildflame. Once out of that cavern and into another and on safer ground, they stopped to rest again.

Snowcrystal was still catching her breath when the sound of footsteps came near. She whirled around, frightened, only to sigh in relief when she noticed Redclaw, Thunder, and Nightshade returning. Nightshade and Redclaw had no wounds, but Thunder was limping on one leg, and one of her eyes was tightly closed, blood seeping out of it.

"Thunder tried to fight them but we managed to escape…I think they're only after Blazefang right now," Redclaw explained for the others.

"Good!" Rosie replied. "They can have Blazefang. Let's go deeper into the cave…I'm not quite sure they've stopped searching for us for good."

"We fire types can use ember to light the way ahead of us," Snowcrystal suggested.

"Good idea," Nightshade told her. "But we're still rather close to the entrance. Let's wait until we're deeper into the cave, where the light won't be seen by our enemies so easily."

"We're supposed to wander around in the dark?" Spark cried in dismay.

"I'll lead the way," Wildflame offered, "and don't worry-I'll make sure to test if the ground is safe _before_ I walk on it."

Thunder peered through the darkness doubtfully, not noticing as Stormblade approached her. "Thunder?" he asked, causing her to jump slightly. She turned away from him as he questioned her. "What happened? Is your eye badly hurt? Do you want me to-"

Without bothering to answer, Thunder lashed out with the back of her scythe, knocking Stormblade's head sharply against the rock wall. "Ok," she said to the others, no longer acknowledging him, "let's get a move on already."

As soon as Wildflame vanished into a large tunnel ahead, Thunder quickly followed her, and was followed by Nightshade, Spark, Rosie, and then Redclaw. "Do you want me to help you, Stormblade?" Redclaw asked, but received no answer. Snowcrystal walked over to Stormblade, who had sat up, still leaning against the wall with his head lowered as he stared at the ground.

"Come on Stormblade!" the small pokémon cried, nudging his uninjured leg. "We have to leave! It isn't safe!"

"Sure…fine…" Stormblade replied dully, not looking up.

"We need to leave as in NOW!" Redclaw called from up ahead, his ears pricked as the sound of pokémon approaching reached them.

Stormblade didn't say anything. He didn't want to move. He didn't want to try. When Snowcrystal tried to talk to him, he barely heard her.

"Redclaw's going to help you walk," the growlithe whispered.

"I don't need any help," Stormblade told her, looking up. "Tell the others to go on ahead. I'll follow you."

Snowcrystal was about to argue, but she stopped herself, realizing that Stormblade wasn't going to listen. Instead, she just nodded, and followed Redclaw into the cave.

Up ahead, it was completely dark, and even the light from Snowcrystal's red crystal wasn't enough to see much of anything by. "Can't somebody use ember now?" Spark complained as he limped ahead of Rosie and Redclaw.

"Just a bit farther," Wildflame replied from up ahead. "I can't hear any of those pokémon following us, so they must have just gone after…Blazefang…but I just want to be sure-" Her words were interrupted as she suddenly walked head first into a large boulder. With a growl she backed away, muttering a very bad swear word.

Spark gasped. "Wildflame!" he cried angrily. "That's a BAD WORD!"

"Oh shut up!" Wildflame muttered irritably. The houndoom turned to the boulder and sighed. "Guess I have no choice," she told herself, and breathed out a small plume of flame.

The way in front of them was partially blocked by what Wildflame had thought was a boulder, but was in reality a tall pillar of stone, formed long ago when a massive stalactite and stalagmite joined together. The only way through the passage was through a narrow gap between the pillar and the opposite wall.

"We won't all fit through there!" Rosie growled.

Snowcrystal was about to say something when Stormblade gave a gasp of pain from behind her and staggered against the wall, and another pokémon gave a surprised yelp and stumbled straight into her. Pushing herself away, Snowcrystal instantly recognized Blazefang's pelt as Wildflame turned her head and the small ember flame toward them.

Wildflame let the flame go out in shock. "Where did you-" she began, but Blazefang was already scrambling past the others and toward the houndoom. Confused and angry, Stormblade stood shakily back up and watched as Redclaw used his fire attack to provide light again in the cavern.

"Are you just going to stand here?" the panicked houndour asked Wildflame, before moving toward the opening leading further into the tunnel.

"Wait a minute," Redclaw told him, blocking the way. "You can go through here…but _we_ go through first."

Blazefang bit back an angry reply and simply nodded reluctantly, seeing no other option. Redclaw moved aside and indicated that the smallest pokémon go first. Spark and then Rosie were the first two to push their way through, though with difficulty, and they waited on the other side as Snowcrystal easily passed through the opening. Redclaw turned to Wildflame, Nightshade, Thunder, and Stormblade, unsure if any of them would be able to fit through such a narrow space. "Wildflame," he suggested, "you try."

The houndoom walked forward, stepping into the opening and trying to force her shoulders through. Claws scraping against the ground, she tried to push forward, ignoring the pain as her fur scraped roughly against the cave's uneven walls. She made it a tiny bit further before at last she had to give up and crawl painfully back out of the hole. "I can't…" she muttered in frustration.

"Well…I don't think the rest of us will be able to…" Redclaw began, but was quickly interrupted.

"I'll try!" Thunder spoke up, and pushed past Wildflame until she stood in front of the narrow crevice. Turning so that she would be entering it sideways, she flattened her wings against her back and pressed her body against the wall, slowly edging her way into the slim opening. It was a struggle to make any progress. The rough rock scraped painfully against her open and bleeding wounds, and there wasn't enough space for her to move backwards or forward, so there was no way of preventing that. As she edged sideways closer to the opposite side, the passage got narrower, to the point where she almost felt like she was being crushed when she tried to go further. Redclaw peered through the opening, noticing that her progress had gotten steadily slower until she stopped. He had heard of pokémon that had tried to enter narrow caves and gotten hopelessly trapped, and he couldn't help growing a bit worried.

Yet for once Thunder was glad she was so thin. After a few more seconds of struggling to free herself from between the rocks, she made it to the other side where Rosie, Spark, and Snowcrystal waited.

Blazefang turned to look at Wildflame, Redclaw, Nightshade and Stormblade and rolled his eyes. "None of you guys are going to fit in there!" he muttered. "Let me go through…" He took a step toward the opening but Redclaw blocked it again.

"Not until we find a way," the arcanine growled. He looked up, studying the rock. "Do you think we could try breaking this pillar…at least enough to widen the gap a little?" he mused.

"We could try," Nightshade replied, "we just have to be careful not to break it too quickly…I don't want to cause any sort of collapse."

"A collapse?" Spark repeated from the other side, sounding nervous. "This sounds a little too dangerous…"

Rosie just sighed and glanced around, her eyes darting to Thunder's wounds. "Yikes, Thunder, you're bleeding!" the ninetales exclaimed. "Couldn't you have waited back there with the others?"

Luckily, Thunder didn't get a chance to reply as a shout from Stormblade on the other side of the crevice distracted those waiting on the other side. "What happened?" Snowcrystal called.

Redclaw turned around, seeing Stormblade lying on the ground and three pokémon standing behind him, a charmeleon, a rapidash, and another scyther, who stood with her foot on Stormblade's neck. Blazefang gave a shriek and tried to run for the opening between the pillars, but Redclaw blocked him again. "It's you they want," the arcanine hissed from between clenched teeth. He turned to the three standing there. "Let Stormblade go," he growled to the strange scyther. "I'm sure this _Cyclone_ pokémon has no use for him."

The scyther's eyes widened a bit at the mention of the name Stormblade, and she glanced down at the pokémon she held to the ground, looking confused, but only for a moment, and she turned to Redclaw again. "It's not him we want," the scyther replied, and stepped in front of Stormblade, followed by the charmeleon who approached Redclaw.

"Just let them take Blazefang already!" Rosie shouted from the other side of the stone pillar, listening intently to the conversation.

Redclaw hesitated; he'd heard of the things Blazefang had done, but did he really deserve to be forced to fight, and potentially kill, for these pokémon who were forcing him to join an army? Boldly, he stepped forward. "He doesn't want to join you," he stated firmly. "Look elsewhere for recruits."

"He knows Shadowflare," the scyther growled in reply. "We won't find it anywhere else."

Redclaw silently hoped that Blazefang would do something; threaten her with the Forbidden Attack and try to get them to leave-or anything, but the houndour remained silent.

"Enough of this…" the rapidash cried angrily, stamping his hoof down hard, not noticing that Stormblade's injured wing was right below it. "Either you three and the houndour come with us or we'll report back to Cyclone and have him send more pokémon to hunt you down."

"Let them try it," Nightshade replied calmly with a small smile. He knew better than anyone that tracking was nearly impossible in this cave.

The three pokémon looked as if they were going to back away and retreat. "Fine," snorted the charmeleon as he and the scyther began to turn away.

"I've got a better idea!" the rapidash snarled.

If Nightshade hadn't happened to jerk backwards in surprise at that moment, he would have been gored by the rapidash's horn as the fire pokémon lunged forward. Missing his target, the fire type slid into the big stone pillar, causing the cavern to shudder. Redclaw turned and sank his teeth into the pokémon's hind leg, noticing that the scyther and charmeleon weren't attacking and seemed rather shocked themselves.

The rapidash kicked Redclaw in the muzzle with his free leg, while Nightshade ran to Stormblade, who seemed unable to get up. In the confusion, Blazefang bolted into the narrow space leading to the next cavern, pushing his way painfully through the small space until he made it through and lay panting near Snowcrystal and her three friends.

Not noticing that Blazefang had fled, Redclaw tackled the rapidash that had threatened them, sending him crashing into the opposite wall. Turning toward the pillar of stone, he slammed against it with a take down attack, hoping to cause it some damage so he and the remainder of the group could rejoin the others.

A resounding crack rent the air as the massive stone column shuddered. Several large cracks appeared in the rocky surface, but it didn't move. Furious, the rapidash stood up, ready to charge at Redclaw again.

Making sure Stormblade was standing on his own, Nightshade left his side and ran toward the large pillar, slamming his horn into one of the cracks. There was a loud breaking, grinding sound, and a large chunk of rock fell to the ground, widening the hole. "Get in!" he called to Stormblade and Wildflame, while Redclaw dodged a thrust from the rapidash's horn. The scyther and charmeleon watching the battle stood warily, not wanting to get involved with the fight, especially now that Blazefang was gone.

After Wildflame had darted through the widened opening and Stormblade had managed to make it through, Nightshade rammed the pillar with his horn again, knowing that he needed to make the opening wider for Redclaw.

After a few tries, another section of the column broke off, and Nightshade jumped into the opening, calling to Redclaw, "hurry! This way!" Redclaw turned to look, and stopped a second too long.

He gave a cry of pain as the rapidash slammed into him, knocking him into the weakening pillar behind them. A loud rumble was heard.

"Uh…I think we should be getting out of here…" the charmeleon muttered anxiously, seeming to snap the rapidash out of his frenzied rage.

Abandoning Redclaw, the fire type leaped up and ran after his two companions as they headed back the way they had come, while Redclaw bolted into the widened hole. He still had to struggle to get through it, but he made it to the other side quickly. And not a moment too soon. Redclaw ducked his head as the entire pillar collapsed, and chunks of rock fell from the ceiling.

With a jolt of panic the nine pokémon who had gone into the tunnel beyond the pillar realized that a large part of the ceiling above was collapsing. In their terror, some of the pokémon scattered; others tried to take shelter, or in Stormblade's case, crouched down by the cave wall, unable to do anything else.

Snowcrystal had been running forward away from the collapsed stone column, when she forced herself to stop and turn to look for her friends. She gave a shriek of terror as the sound of many rocks hitting the cave floor and piling on top of each other reached her ears, and the ground shuddered, knocking her off balance.

In helpless terror, the growlithe tried to cover her ears with her paws to block out the horrible roaring noise as she lay on the ground, making cries of terror as small rocks pelted her huddled form.

Then suddenly, it stopped.

Snowcrystal coughed, freeing herself from the small bits of stone that now covered her. The cave was completely dark. The first pokémon she thought of was Stormblade. Lighting up the cavern with a small ember, she quickly spotted the scyther and ran over to him. "Are you okay?" she asked, nudging his shoulder carefully.

"Stormblade hasn't been okay for weeks," Rosie grumbled, standing up slowly near where Stormblade lay. To Snowcrystal's relief, she didn't seem hurt by the rockfall.

Stormblade looked up, but didn't look at Snowcrystal. "Sure. I'm fine. Not hurt worse…" he replied quietly.

Snowcrystal glanced around and saw Thunder get shakily to her feet, and turned to look around for the others. There was no sign of them. Looking around, she quickly noticed a huge wall of rock and debris from the collapse, blocking off the small area behind them. Realizing that the others must be trapped on the other side, she hastily climbed the rugged boulders, hoping to find a way she could slip through to reach her friends. Rosie, meanwhile, was studying the cavern they were in, gazing into the dark tunnel that lay ahead of them, cool cave air ruffling her fur. The others, she realized, must still be back near where the stone column had fallen.

Snowcrystal pawed at the rocks, not seeing any place where she could possibly get through to the other side. She gave a small squeak of surprise as some of the smaller rocks near the top shifted, and using ember again, she saw Nightshade's claws break through, then retreat.

"Nightshade!" she cried, running up to the hole. The heracross did not try to break through the rocks, but she heard his voice from the other side.

"Are you all right?" he asked. "Redclaw, Wildflame, and Spark are fine. So is that houndour, Blazefang."

"I'm fine!" Snowcrystal answered. "Rosie and Stormblade aren't hurt any worse…I don't know about Thunder…but can you break through these rocks?"

Nightshade took a moment to reply. "There's a very large rock near the top of this heap of boulders on this side," he replied at last. "I can't shift more than a few of these small rocks without causing it to fall over. I can move the rock itself, but it might make the whole tunnel collapse! There's enough space for us to go back the way we came and find another route-Cyclone's cronies are gone. I'm afraid we'll have to go separate ways."

"But-" Snowcrystal began.

"Just help the others," Nightshade replied. "You'll be fine if you stick together and make sure either you or Rosie provides light to see by. Be careful, and remember to mark the walls of the tunnels you pass by with your claws so you know you've been there and won't end up going in circles."

"I…I'm not sure I can-" she replied hesitantly, but Nightshade cut her off.

"Just lead the others," he replied calmly. "Me and the rest of us on this side need to get going. This place could still collapse." Another rumble was heard, and the heracross's voice sounded more anxious. "We need to go now. Get the others and move further along the tunnel. You should be safe away from where the collapse started."

"Ok…" Snowcrystal whispered uncertainly, and she heard Nightshade scramble back down the rocks toward the others. Snowcrystal then headed down the pile of boulders to the cave floor.

"Good luck, Snowcrystal!" she heard Redclaw call from behind the rocks as she and Rosie did what they could to help Stormblade get up, and along with Thunder, the four of them walked away from the scene of the collapse.

* * *

A short while later, Snowcrystal's group stopped to rest, safely away from the danger of falling rocks. Rosie had curled up near the wall of the cave to try and get some sleep, and Thunder had soon done the same. Stormblade sat away from the others, refusing to talk to anyone.

Leaning against the smooth and wet cave wall, Snowcrystal's thoughts constantly wandered back to the group of friends who were separated. Were they all right? Would they find a way to reach her again? Had Blazefang left or was he still with them?

Sighing, she lay her head on her paws, listening to the soft sound of water dripping from somewhere further within the cave, as she closed her eyes and willed sleep to come to her. If there was anything she needed now, it was to have as much strength as possible for the journey ahead.


	32. A Shadow in the Dark

_(Another one! This one is one of my favorite chapters.)_

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 32- A Shadow in the Dark**

When Snowcrystal woke, she was aware that she had only managed to doze off for a short while. Lifting her head, she glanced at the others. Rosie was still asleep; Thunder might have been as well, but Stormblade was wide awake.

Snowcrystal slowly stood up, hearing the faint sound of water dripping somewhere within the cave. She turned and walked toward Rosie, using the light of her crystal to see by. As she walked past Thunder, the scyther stirred and got to her feet. Snowcrystal noticed that she was using both legs to stand again, but she still looked unsteady on her feet.

Rosie slowly opened her eyes and looked up as Snowcrystal approached. Surprisingly, she didn't seem very tired. "I guess we're going now?" she asked, giving the growlithe a questioning look.

Snowcrystal nodded. "We've got to find a way out of here and find the others as quickly as possible," she replied. "We'll be able to rest again later."

Soon afterward Snowcrystal led the way through the cave, using the light from her small fire attacks to see the way. Rosie helped at times, though not quite as much, as it still wasn't easy for her to walk over the rocks, and she had to rely on Snowcrystal's light most of the time. For them, the fact that they had to walk slowly for Stormblade wasn't a problem. However, for Thunder, it was.

Thunder was in a bad mood to begin with. The deep cut on her arm was made worse by the shackle rubbing against it, and it had begun to get infected. Most of her wounds were bleeding again and it was hard to see in such a dark place especially when she still could not open her injured eye. And to make matters worse, _Stormblade_ was setting the pace for the whole group.

Angrily, she slashed a small stalagmite in half as she followed Snowcrystal, wishing she didn't have to rely on the growlithe's light to travel through the place. "Can't we go any faster?" she growled. "There's no food in this cave so it's not like we can just take as much time as we like!"

"I thought you didn't mind going without food so much," Rosie replied, turning to look at the thin scyther. "And it's not like we'll be here for weeks."

"Why can't we go on ahead and let Stormblade follow our scent?" Thunder muttered.

"It's too hard to follow a scent in here," Snowcrystal told her, letting the flame die out for a second. "We have to stick together."

The others were silent for a moment, and then Rosie slowly nodded and Thunder sighed and looked away. "Fine…" the scyther muttered.

For a while longer the small group of four traveled together in darkness, through winding tunnels and past strange towering rock formations. Snowcrystal felt worried, and afraid, wondering if the tunnels she was choosing to enter were the ones that would lead them out of the cave, or if she was really just making her friends hopelessly lost.

Rosie had the task of helping Snowcrystal mark the cave walls with her claws. It was while she was doing this for what had to be at least the fifteenth time, Stormblade, who was still struggling to catch up, suddenly collapsed.

Snowcrystal rushed over to him, worried he might be hurt worse. It took her an instant to realize that he had simply passed out. Rosie turned away from the wall and approached Snowcrystal, using her ember attack to light up the area around them. After that she could clearly see Stormblade lying motionless on his side, his limbs sprawled out in random directions. There was blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Rosie kept her fire attack up as Snowcrystal glanced around frantically. "Is there any water here?" she asked, looking back and forth from Rosie to Thunder.

"I don't think water will do him much good," Rosie replied worriedly, shaking her head.

"Well we have to-" Snowcrystal began, facing Rosie, but a cough from Stormblade behind her made her turn around. Stormblade was stirring slowly, and lifted his head long enough to spit out a mouthful of blood. Then he lay back down again, closing his eyes. Snowcrystal didn't know if he had the strength to get up.

Rosie stepped closer to him, while Thunder watched from afar, a look of what was almost horror on her face, as if the scene before her had suddenly awakened some terrible memory. Snowcrystal sat beside Stormblade next to Rosie, and told the ninetales, "he can't go on like this. We need to rest now."

While Snowcrystal lay beside the half-conscious Stormblade, using her ember attacks to keep him warm, Rosie and Thunder kept watch. Rosie jumped at the slightest sound from within the cave, and she glanced constantly all around her, as if she expected some pokémon to jump out of the darkness at her from behind one of the many stone columns. Thunder was calmer, and not having any fire attacks to help her see by, she had to rely on sound and scent. However, neither of them could detect any potential danger.

"Snowcrystal…?" a weak voice mumbled, and the growlithe turned to see Stormblade, his eyes barely open, looking at her. Stormblade's voice sounded weak and forced, and she could hardly hear what he was saying. "If the others are waiting…why don't you keep going? You have to get out…you can leave me here…I'll catch up. If the others are…"

"What?" Snowcrystal exclaimed, shocked. "We're not leaving you here! You know you wouldn't be able to catch up! We aren't leaving anyone here. We came into this cave together and we'll leave it…together. All you need is some rest…then we can keep going," she added more gently. _'All you need is some rest…_' she thought. _'If only that were true…'_

Stormblade didn't answer and merely closed his eyes again. Rosie stood up and limped over to the scyther and sat beside Snowcrystal once more. Both of them looked down at Stormblade, and from where she stood, Thunder could hear them whispering quietly to each other.

Thunder sighed and turned away. False hope, that's all it was. Those two were just prolonging the inevitable. They simply couldn't accept the fact that Stormblade was going to die from these injuries. She had accepted it long ago. In the long run, there was simply nothing these pokémon could do.

Yet at the same time, she could not help but feel distressed at the sight whenever she looked at Stormblade. Out of all the pokémon she traveled with, she felt she knew him best, not that that was saying much. As much as she knew that she should not care about his pain or the pain of any of the others, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him because of the pain he was in-she had been there. Annoyed, she closed her good eye and slowly sat down, trying to push the troubling thoughts to the back of her mind. This was what she got for allowing herself to get close to these pokémon.

* * *

Confused, and completely lost, Blazefang had no choice but to trail after the group as Nightshade led Redclaw, Wildflame, and Spark through the winding passages of smooth wet stone. The others seemed too distracted with their own matters to pay much attention to him, and as long as he stayed far enough behind the group, they didn't bother him much. He was glad he was a fire type and able to use his own fire attacks to provide light to see by, otherwise he would be stumbling after the others in the dark. He was a nocturnal pokémon, but a moonlit field or forest was one thing; an underground cave was another.

Up ahead, Redclaw, the arcanine, was talking to Wildflame while the heracross paused momentarily to listen to them. Blazefang looked up hopefully, wondering if they were going to stop and rest, but they turned and kept going after a moment. Blazefang sighed wearily and trudged after them.

While Wildflame used her ember attack to light the way, Spark, who was still limping, ran up to Redclaw with a grin on his face. "Hey Redclaw!" the jolteon cried, a bit too loudly for the arcanine's liking, "now that Stormblade's gone…_I'm_ the injured pokémon around here. You guys all have to take care of me now! And I'm tired…so carry me…"

"You've got four legs. You can walk yourself!" Redclaw grumbled.

"Fine!" Spark muttered, acting offended. Redclaw rolled his eyes and was about to reply when Nightshade interrupted him.

"Looks like we've gone in circles…" the heracross sighed. "See these claw marks? One of us made them when we came by this way. We took the tunnel leading left…I guess we need to try the right path now."

"Uggh…we're never going to get out of here at this rate…" Wildflame muttered, peering around. "How long do you think we've been walking?"

"Eleventy hundred million days…give or take a few," Spark replied with a grin.

Wildflame rounded on him. "Can you take this seriously even for just a little bit?" she growled.

"What? And end up all stressed and worried like you?" Spark replied.

"Look…if we don't find a way out, we'll be trapped here, got it?" Wildflame snapped. "If you're not going to give me a serious answer when I ask a question, don't say anything at all!"

"Calm down, Wildflame," Redclaw told the houndoom softly. "Spark's right about one thing-worrying won't do us much good. We'll just have to keep looking for a way out, and most importantly, we need to stay calm."

Wildflame felt her fur lie flat again, realizing that he was right. "I know…" she muttered quietly, lowering her head with a sigh.

As the group started to follow Nightshade into the right tunnel, Spark made an observation. "Hey look," he pointed out, "there's claw marks on the side of this wall too."

Nightshade looked up from where he was busy clawing the wall in another place to mark their path, and saw what Spark was looking at. There _were_ claw marks in the wall, very similar, yet slightly different in shape to the ones he had just made. Carefully, he ran his claws over them. "These ones weren't made by me, and they weren't made by Wildflame either…and they're too small to be Redclaw's…" he mused, and then darted back to the other claw marks on the left tunnel's wall, Wildflame at his side. After a moment of examining them closely, he sighed. "These look the same. Obviously someone else made these…and recently by the look of it. I think they may have made them to try and confuse us. Perhaps somebody doesn't want us here…"

Blazefang shifted uneasily on his paws, while Redclaw glanced around, worried. Wildflame decided to speak up. "Well, they'll have to try harder than that," she growled. "We now know we haven't gone through either of these tunnels, and we'll just have to have Redclaw mark the way. His claw marks are pretty recognizable."

"Good idea!" Nightshade complimented her, and the group headed off down the left tunnel.

As they walked, they often saw other caverns and small spaces that led to bigger caverns, all with the same marks. Some places were even marked that led to spaces too small for Redclaw to fit through. However, just as a precaution, Nightshade checked every one closely to make sure that the marks really were the strange ones, and not their own.

"Whoever's trying to confuse us isn't thinking this through very well," Spark remarked after a while.

"I'm not so sure they're trying to confuse us anymore, Spark," Nightshade told the jolteon. "I'm beginning to think that these marks might be a warning."

"As long as we stick together, we should be fine," Redclaw stated. "Let's just keep going and make sure we aren't going in circles."

Nightshade nodded and he and Redclaw walked further over the slippery stone, Spark and Wildflame following just behind them. Blazefang followed them at a distance, feeling an eerie feeling creep along his spine. He wished the pack were here…or even that the heracross and his friends would allow him to travel with them. But neither of those things were going to happen. Trying to forget his worried thoughts, Blazefang sighed and took another step forward.

He was immediately met with a loud screech as something jumped down on him from above.

"_TRESSPASSERS!_ We've found you!"

* * *

It was a while before Stormblade was ready to travel again. Even then, the going was painfully slow, and Stormblade would often stop, and each time he did so it took longer for Snowcrystal and Rosie to help him get up and keep going again. Thunder didn't try to offer any help, though she did make a few remarks to the others that forcing him to travel like this was only making things worse. Rosie had quickly gotten tired, and ended up walking beside Stormblade, leaving Snowcrystal to light the way on her own.

The small growlithe wasn't sure how much farther the group could go that day. They were all tired, hungry, and thirsty, yet there was no food to be seen, nor was there any source of water other than the scarce droplets falling from the ceiling and the occasional tiny puddles of water. She decided that they'd find a place to rest and try to sleep for a while.

As she walked ahead of the others through a narrow passage, she realized that up ahead, the tunnel opened up into a much larger cavern, with a high domed ceiling covered in long, pointed stalactites. Snowcrystal ran ahead, emerging from the tunnel and into the big cavern. The sight took her breath away.

She was standing on a stone ledge above an oddly smooth cave floor below her, looking out over a cavern bigger than any she'd ever seen, even in the vespiquen's hive. Colorful and complex rock formations, ranging in hue from golden yellow and orange-brown to grayish purple, covered the cavern, forming strange and intricate patterns on the cave wall and the many pillars of stone. Parts of the cave were lit up by large clusters of crystals that glowed, much like the ones she had seen back in her home. A feeling of homesickness washed over her, and she wondered what her friends back at the mountain were doing now.

Snowcrystal turned her head as Thunder came to stand beside her. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asked the scyther.

"For one big, giant enclosed space? Sure," Thunder replied. She turned her head slightly as Rosie and Stormblade stood beside them.

"Wow…" Rosie gasped, "I've seen caves before…but none like this…it's amazing! I never knew stone could be so…colorful."

Snowcrystal wondered what Stormblade thought of it, but when he didn't say anything, she realized that right now, pain must be a far more pressing issue for him than the beauty of a cave. She sighed. "At least I won't have to use fire attacks for a while until we get through this part of the cave," she said, indicating the crystals. "And the floor is smooth…it'll be easy to walk over." She directed this last statement at Stormblade, who didn't respond. She wasn't even sure he had heard her.

"Do you think we should walk through here before we rest?" Rosie asked Snowcrystal.

The growlithe nodded. "Yes, it'll be easy. And if we need to, we can always rest somewhere in this cavern." She stepped toward the edge of the rocky ledge, looking down at the smooth ground below. "Let's go."

She leaped down, but once she landed, she soon figured out why the stone floor was so smooth-it wasn't stone at all. Her paws landed with a squelch in thick, gooey mud. Lifting one of her paws with a little difficulty, as the mud was sticky and reached halfway up her legs, she turned to the others, trying to shake the mud off her paw and flinching when a drop of water from above struck her nose. "It's…uh…muddy…" she told them sheepishly.

Rosie peered down at the ground and then gingerly leapt to stand beside Snowcrystal on three legs, the mud only reaching a little bit above her paws. "It's not so bad," she told the two scyther, who were waiting. "And it shouldn't be a problem for you two."

"That mud is just an infection waiting to happen," Thunder muttered grudgingly, but she too leaped down to stand beside Snowcrystal, ignoring the pain shooting up her injured leg. Being taller than the other two, the mud wasn't much of a problem for Thunder to walk through, but Snowcrystal was worried that she would be right about the infection.

Stormblade, still on the ledge, leaned over to get a better view of the ground below. At any time before his injuries, he could have effortlessly made the jump. Now, it seemed impossible. He turned to peer at his wings, all four of them battered, burned and useless. He turned back to look at the other three pokémon on the ground. He knew the only way he'd ever get down without injuring himself further was to climb.

Snowcrystal watched as Stormblade turned away from the edge of the rock he was standing on, and limped over to the side, where the ledge sloped down a little to meet the ground below it. The scyther leaned forward, using the tips of his scythes to steady himself, and began to slowly, hesitantly climb down.

Stormblade hadn't gone far when his scythe slipped on the wet stone, causing him to trip and tumble down into the mud. He slowly tried to stand upright, looking down at the mud covering the thin but deep burns around his legs.

While Stormblade started to lick his wounds clean, Thunder began walking ahead, determined to get out of the cavern. "Wait up!" Snowcrystal called, running with difficulty through the mud to catch up to her. She stopped at Thunder's side, panting slightly. "We have to stick together…and wait for Rosie and Stormblade."

To her surprise, Thunder didn't object, and stayed where she was. Rosie reached the others first, though it was clear the ninetales found it a bit harder to walk through the mud on three legs. At last Stormblade reached them, no longer bothering to try and clean the mud from his wounds. Snowcrystal looked at him and sighed yet again. "Come on," she told the others, knowing that Stormblade and Rosie wouldn't be able to climb back onto the ledge anyway, "we might as well just keep going until we find a good spot to rest. Follow me…"

Snowcrystal began walking, heading toward a large group of stalagmites near the center of the cavern, the others trailing behind her. As she walked further, the mud she was walking through got deeper. The others, apart from Stormblade, didn't seem to notice or care much, but Snowcrystal found that wading through the mud was becoming harder and harder. After a short while, the mud had gotten so deep it reached her belly fur, and it was so thick that she found it hard to force her way through it. Stopping, she turned to Thunder. "Maybe you should go first," she suggested, realizing that Thunder could move through the mud without much trouble, and make the way easier for the rest of them.

Thunder moved to the front of the group, and Snowcrystal found it easier to walk through where the scyther had stepped, but further on the mud was still getting deeper, and stickier. It wasn't long before Thunder got fed up with fighting her way through the thick gooey mud, and decided to fly over it instead, despite the injuries to her wings. Snowcrystal watched the scyther fly over to another ledge on the other side of the cavern, where she stood waiting for them, though unable to see them clearly from that far across the cavern.

Snowcrystal was finding it increasingly more difficult to wade through the mud. Near the center of the cavern, it got much deeper, and her paws could no longer touch the bottom. Instead, she was forced to crawl over the mud's surface, and try not to sink too far and get stuck. Behind her, Rosie was forced to do the same, only on three legs.

"I think the combee's cave was nicer," the ninetales remarked, trying to distract herself and the others while she struggled to keep her paws from sinking too deeply.

"Well at least there aren't any angry pokémon chasing after us this time," Snowcrystal remarked, realizing what Rosie was trying to do. "I'll take this over being chased by a swarm of combee any day."

"Heh, me too," Rosie replied. "I can't stand bug pokémon…well, most bugs anyway," she added in a whispered apology to Stormblade. "Being chased by a swarm of combee was really…ugh…oh great…I think I'm stuck."

Snowcrystal turned her head, seeing Rosie lying on the mud with her forepaws reaching out in front of her. Her back legs had sunk deeply into the ooze, and as she struggled to pull them free, the suction from the thick, sticky mud kept her from making much progress.

As Snowcrystal watched, she realized too that her paws were sinking. Quickly pulling away, she shouted a warning to Rosie. "Don't stop!" she hissed warningly. "Keep moving forward or else you'll just sink further."

Rosie nodded and pulled herself forward, inch by inch until her back legs were free enough to allow her to crawl over the surface of the mud again.

By this time, Stormblade was up to his waist in mud, and was making slower progress than the others, despite the fact that he could still touch the ground and didn't have to worry about sinking. As he got further, Snowcrystal realized that the mud was deeper still further on, and was still so thick that Stormblade could hardly force his way through it.

Snowcrystal quickly found that it was easier to walk over the mud when she walked quickly, not allowing her paws much time to sink. Rosie caught on and followed Snowcrystal's example, calling encouragement to Stormblade. Stormblade, however, couldn't follow the example. Unlike them, he only had one good leg, and his scythes quickly and easily sank through the mud when he tried to put any weight on them. He was also heavier than the others; even an underweight scyther weighed more than a young ninetales or a growlithe.

Snowcrystal didn't dare stop for fear that she would get stuck, but she was growing increasingly worried. She became even more so when they reached the group of stalagmites, which blocked out most of the light from the nearby crystals, eclipsing the group in darkness. Snowcrystal kept close to the stalagmites, in case she needed to use something to help her pull herself free of the mud. Here, the shadows from the stones made the ground even darker, and she had to rely on the light from her crystal to see. After a few more steps, she noticed a strange smell, but didn't focus on it long, and continued to make her way past the rocks.

Suddenly she stumbled into something, causing her to fall onto her side in the mud. She quickly got up and backed away, trying to see what she had walked into by scraping some of the mud off her crystal with her claws. She soon realized what it was that she had stumbled into. What lie ahead of her was the skeleton of some canine pokémon, half submerged in the mud by the rocks. Letting out a squeak of surprise, Snowcrystal backed away.

Rosie looked up, stopping in her tracks at the sight of the long-dead pokémon. Snowcrystal edged around it, calling to Rosie to keep going. Snowcrystal found herself unable to look away from the still skeleton of whatever pokémon had tried to travel through this cavern. It was bigger than she was, but it looked horribly like a growlithe, and Snowcrystal got a sickening jolt when she realized that aside from the churned up mud around the pokémon there were claw marks on the stalagmite nearest to it.

"What an awful way to die," Rosie remarked sadly, noticing the same thing she had. "Being trapped in the mud and slowly starving to death…" She shuddered.

"K-keep g-going…" Snowcrystal whispered quietly, turning away. However, the image of the growlithe's skeleton and the desperate claw marks on the stone was forever branded into her mind. However, she kept her gaze focused ahead, not knowing if she could force herself to look back even if she wanted to. Rosie kept silent until they left the shadows of the stalagmites and emerged into the open again.

The ninetales breathed a sigh of relief. The ledge Thunder was waiting on wasn't far away, and as they came into the light again, Thunder turned her head towards them, but said nothing. As Stormblade managed to make it past the stalagmites, Snowcrystal and Rosie, already far ahead, noticed with relief that the mud was shallower at the bottom of the ledge, and the two exhausted fire types climbed up the slope and reached Thunder.

Snowcrystal looked out over the mud again, calling to Stormblade. "Keep going, Stormblade! It's not so deep further on!" However she knew that right now he was in one of the deepest parts of the mud, and she realized with worry that he looked more exhausted than any of them.

Stormblade moved forward, ever so slowly, but got no more than a foot or two before he stopped, feeling too weak to go on. "Don't _stop_!" Rosie called to him. "Do you _want_ to get trapped there?"

Reluctantly, Stormblade kept struggling to move toward the others, but this time he only got a few inches further, before he stopped again. Snowcrystal quickly edged her way down off the ledge and into the shallow mud, facing him. "It gets easier over here!" she told him. "You're almost through the worst part…just keep going and it won't be so hard!"

This time Stormblade looked up at her but didn't move. "Keep going!" Snowcrystal shouted at him again.

But Stormblade's strength had left him. As he tried to struggle forward, he found himself unable to move. He had lost the strength to struggle through the mud, and although he wasn't in danger of sinking further as long as he was standing, the sticky mud made it impossible for him to move backwards or forwards in his weakened state. Snowcrystal watched as he struggled wearily for a few more moments before doing the worst possible thing he could have done-laying down on the surface of the thick mud.

"Stormblade! No, don't-" Snowcrystal shouted, but Stormblade didn't respond. Without hesitating, Snowcrystal raced across the surface of the mud toward him. Rosie stayed behind on the rock ledge, looking panicked. Snowcrystal reached Stormblade's side quickly. "Get up!" she shouted urgently. "Don't lay down…you have to keep going!"

"I-I…can't…" Stormblade's voice was hardly even a whisper.

Snowcrystal felt her paws sinking further, but at the moment she didn't care. "You have to get up! Don't give up Stormblade! You…you…_can't_ give up…"

"Stormblade, don't just lay there!" Rosie's panicked shout sounded across the cavern from the ledge she stood on, but to Snowcrystal the sound seemed very far away. Stormblade lifted his head painfully and tried to rise, but it was clear that he simply did not have the strength. He lay down again.

"Stormblade!" Snowcrystal cried, pulling her paws free of the mud and edging closer to him. She whined softly, nudging the side of his head. She knew she should get back on the ledge, but she couldn't bring herself to leave his side when she had no idea if he would be able to make it or not.

Back on the ledge, Rosie paced back and forth anxiously. If it hadn't been for her broken leg, she would have dashed into the mud to try to help Stormblade as well. Yet in reality, she realized, all they could do was try to encourage him. Snowcrystal was far too small to help Stormblade out, and she knew that she wouldn't be of any help either. Thunder was the only one who remained calm, watching Snowcrystal and Stormblade impassively.

"Stormblade you have…to try…" Snowcrystal gasped, trying to push the scyther's blade out of the mud. "You can't just…give up…" Stormblade's only response was to close his eyes.

"Snowcrystal, get out of there!" Rosie shouted in worry. The growlithe looked down to see herself submerged up to her shoulders. Fighting to free herself, she crawled forward out of the mud, turning to Rosie.

"What do you want me to do? Just leave him here?" she shouted back.

"You're too small to be of any help to him!" Rosie called back, the fear for both her and Stormblade showing in the ninetales's panicked gaze. "Get out or you'll be stuck too! We'll think of something! Just…let me think…"

Snowcrystal refused to listen. Rosie could hear the growlithe's cries grow more and more panicked as Stormblade still didn't move. "Oh no…" she whispered. "He's giving up…oh no…"

Thunder could hear both Rosie's panicked whispers and Snowcrystal's desperate shouts echoing around the walls of the cave. She closed her eyes, trying to drown it all out.

"Snowcrystal you need to get back here!" Rosie cried. "It's dangerous! There's got to be another way…just…come back! Get back where it's safe!"

"NO!" Snowcrystal shouted back, still trying in vain to push Stormblade out of the mud. She was simply too small…there was no way she could help him, but she was refusing to let herself believe it. In the back of her mind, she knew that if she stayed there she would soon become stuck too deeply in the mud to be able to get out, just as Stormblade now was, but she couldn't bring herself to leave Stormblade's side.

"You're no use to him trapped!" Rosie shouted, fighting back the panic that was threatening to overwhelm her.

Thunder opened her eyes. Her gaze slowly moved from Rosie, to Snowcrystal and Stormblade. She stood still, the cries of Rosie and Snowcrystal echoing all around her. She sighed.

Rosie was nearly knocked off her feet as Thunder rushed by her, taking to the air and flying out over the mud. She blinked in surprise, hardly registering what had just happened. Snowcrystal looked up as Thunder landed roughly beside her, her feet skidding slightly in the mud. "Move aside," Thunder told the stunned growlithe, who obeyed.

Stormblade's eyes opened in surprise as he looked up at Thunder as if the mud and blood covered scyther was the last thing he expected to see. Without waiting for a response from him, Thunder leaned down and sank her unusually long fangs in the top of Stormblade's wing.

Stormblade was too weak to even cry out in pain as Thunder pulled on his wing, backing up to keep herself from sinking into the deep mud. It was much harder to try and pull him out than she expected, and she didn't seem to be making any progress. Instead, she was starting to sink herself. Despite this, she pulled harder, ignoring the acrid taste of Stormblade's blood in her mouth.

Snowcrystal backed away from Thunder, making sure to stay constantly moving to keep her paws from sinking deeply. "Keep trying, Thunder!" she called, her hope beginning to be renewed.

After a few more moments, Stormblade felt himself being pulled ever so slightly out of the mud. Feeling a small bit of strength returning to him, he lifted his head again, trying to help Thunder by pushing against the ground with his good leg and attempting to crawl forward using his scythes.

Exhausted, Thunder let go of Stormblade's wing, spitting out the blood. "Stupid deep mud…who's idea was it to come this way anyway?" she muttered, before grabbing his wing again and starting to pull.

Fighting against the sinking mud that felt like it was trying to pull him down again while trying not to think about the possibility of his wing getting ripped out of his back, Stormblade, aided by Thunder, used what little strength he had left to crawl out of the deepest part of the mud. Even then the worst part wasn't over. Allowing Stormblade to lean against her, Thunder had to do most of the work fighting her way through the thick mud, knowing that flying was out of the question. Snowcrystal raced back and forth from the ledge to the two scyther, refusing to get to safety until they had managed to reach the rocky ledge where Rosie waited. When at last Thunder managed to help Stormblade pull himself up onto the ledge, both of them collapsed, exhausted.

Snowcrystal climbed up after them, feeling exhausted herself. For a while, there was nothing any of them could do but gasp for breath.

"Thunder…thank you…" Stormblade whispered, looking up at her. "I couldn't have done that alone."

Thunder stared back at him in surprise, a moment before Snowcrystal ran over to her, wagging her tail and happily licking her face. "You did it!" the growlithe cried. "You saved his life! You're a hero!" Startled and confused, Thunder pulled away from her and stood up.

"That was…really brave of you," Rosie told the scyther, her gaze filled with respect.

"Brave?" Thunder repeated. "Why should I be afraid of mud? I have usable wings."

"Of course it was brave!" Snowcrystal cried, not seeming to have heard Thunder's last statement. "You saved Stormblade's life…" she added in a more serious tone. "I don't think any of us can thank you enough." Thunder didn't reply; in fact she seemed completely clueless about how to respond.

While Stormblade lay down, too exhausted to get up, he watched Snowcrystal and Rosie talking to Thunder, and realized with confusion that this seemed to only be making Thunder look more miserable than before. And he certainly knew it wasn't because Thunder had any sort of problem with others seeing her doing a good deed.

As the two overjoyed small pokémon continued to praise Thunder, the scyther's gaze darted from side to side. Then without saying anything, she turned and darted into a tunnel veering off from the ledge they were standing on.

Rosie paused, looking confused. "Was it something I said?" she wondered aloud, glancing at the others.

Thunder had no intentions of leaving the group or going far. She simply wanted to be alone. Noticing a dark, small cavern to the left of her, she turned and walked into it, crouching down against the rough stone. Rosie and Snowcrystal's voices reached her through the darkness. "Thunder?" Snowcrystal cried. "Where are you?"

"I'm over here!" Thunder yelled back, annoyed. "Don't follow me-I just want a moment's peace…and I'm obviously not going to get it with you three around!"

"Oh…ok," Snowcrystal replied in a confused tone, and she and Rosie turned back and walked to Stormblade. When she was sure the two of them had left, Thunder lay down, trying to ignore the tears that came to her eyes and struck the rock below her, looking exactly the same against the cold stone as the small drops of water dripping from the stalactites above her.

Back on the ledge by the large cavern, Snowcrystal lay curled up next to Stormblade, with Rosie right beside her. They had decided to rest there, and continue the journey when Stormblade was stronger. Snowcrystal was nearly asleep when Thunder finally reappeared, looking a bit worried about something, but otherwise not showing any emotion. Looking up, Snowcrystal smiled at her. "Oh, hi Thunder…" she whispered sleepily.

"Look, if you guys want to talk about how happy you are that Stormblade's here, save it for later, ok?" Thunder told her.

"Oh…all right," Snowcrystal replied.

Rosie looked up and watched Thunder move to the other side of the ledge and lie down. "You can sleep here with us if you want to," the ninetales told her.

"How about…_no_," Thunder muttered, before laying her head down and closing her eyes. Rosie just sighed and closed her eyes as well, hoping that traveling through the rest of the cave would be easier for all of them, and that they would have the strength to make it through.

* * *

Cyclone had long since realized that Blazefang was in no way going to cooperate with him. The houndour would probably have to be killed by a trusted fire type in his army. But the real question was…who to trust?

The vaporeon did not turn as Solus approached him from behind. Sunlight glinted off the red letter "R" on the espeon's collar as he came to stand beside Cyclone. "So…are we going after them?" he asked.

"Not through the cave," Cyclone replied calmly, not even turning to look at Solus. "Some pokémon will wait for them near the entrance to the tunnel. The rest of us will simply find all exits to the cave system and wait there for the houndour to come out."

"How are we going to find all the exits?" Solus asked.

"Some of the forest pokémon should know," Cyclone replied calmly, and stood up, heading back to the main army. "Don't act like this is a real problem, Solus. The fire Forbidden Attack is not lost…everything's merely been…_delayed_…"


	33. The Dark Maze

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 33- The Dark Maze**

Redclaw, Nightshade, Wildflame, and Spark all jumped at the sound of the loud cry and Blazefang's panicked yelp. They turned around to see the houndour wrestling with something small and covered in dark grayish fur. With a growl Blazefang sent the pokémon flying with a kick from his back paws and got to his feet again as the stranger landed nimbly on all fours and turned to face him.

Blazefang recognized the pokémon as a sneasel-a fellow dark type. Though the pokémon looked ferocious, she was much smaller than he was, and still quite a young pokémon by the look of her. The houndour took a step forward.

"Lissen!" he barked. "We don't want to be in your cave anymore than you want us to! We're tryin' to find a way out! Know of one? If ya do, tell us and we'll leave faster!"

The sneasel's fur bristled. "I know every rock and wall of this cave," she spat back, "But I don't help those who threaten us. Wander through the cave all you want-but leave this place! This cavern belongs to us!"

"Threaten? I'm not trying to threaten you! Are you blind?" Blazefang growled back furiously.

"You threaten us when you intrude upon our sacred haven," the sneasel replied, meeting his stare evenly.

"Haven?" Blazefang scoffed. "You call this underground wasteland a haven? Just how do you get food here? It's nothing but a damp, dark old cave."

At this point, Nightshade decided to step in. "Look," the heracross told the sneasel. "This houndour means no harm. We're looking for a way out. Could you please-"

"Find a way out yourself!" the sneasel shouted boldly, leaping onto her hind paws and glaring at him. "If I told you the route, you'd be able to find your way back here and others would know of this place. Do you think I'm that stupid?"

Spark rolled his eyes. "This pokémon's crazy," he muttered. "There's nothing here but rocks."

The sneasel grinned. "That's all you see, isn't it?" she told him, her eyes glinting.

Feeling he'd had enough of this, Blazefang brushed past Nightshade, tackling the small sneasel roughly to the ground. "That's it!" the houndour yelled. "Either tell us the way out or I'll make you tell!" Growling, he pressed his paw against the dark pokémon's neck. "TELL!"

However, no answer came from the sneasel save for a long, eerie, drawn out wail of fear. Nightshade quickly moved forward in an attempt to stop Blazefang while Spark and Redclaw flattened their ears at the sound of the sneasel's shrill scream. But before Nightshade could reach Blazefang, the entire group was swarmed by a massive group of zubat, golbat, and crobat coming from seemingly out of nowhere.

Chaos ensued; Blazefang found himself backing frantically away from the sneasel and toward the cave wall as he attempted to fend off the attackers by snapping his jaws at any that came too close. It was a futile effort; there were far too many of them, and he could feel more and more of their fangs sinking into his legs and shoulders, faster than he could retaliate. The other three were in similar situations, though Spark was fighting them off much easier than the others with the use of his long-ranged electric attacks.

Blazefang threw back his head and blasted a flamethrower into the mass of swirling bat pokémon above, and by the light of the flame he could see the pokémon quickly maneuvering out of the way and gathering together in massive swarms that seemed to fill the entire upper cavern. Blazefang stared in awe for a moment, and then as the flames from his attack died out he was ambushed by them again.

Through the mass of screeching bat pokémon he could hear the others' cries-and every few seconds a bright flash from Spark's electric attacks illuminated the cavern and showed him the dire situation they were in. No matter how strong any of their attacks were, they would run out of strength long before their enemies ran out of numbers. Though despite the hopelessness of the situation, Blazefang was determined that if he had to go down, he would go down fighting.

With a snarl he leapt at his opponents, scratching and biting whichever pokémon were nearest. Though the urge to use Shadowflare welled up strongly within him, he resisted it. He would not fall victim to that urge again, whatever the cost. If he was to win this battle, he would win it on his own, without the help of the Forbidden Attack. Growling, he flung two golbat away from him with a kick of his hind paws. Whirling around, he opened his jaws to blast them with a searing flamethrower. But something stopped him.

A loud voice sounded through the confusion. Blazefang could hear the words clearly, even over the sound of the fighting.

"_Stop! What is happening here?"_

At once all activity ceased, and Blazefang could see the startled looks of Snowcrystal's three friends as the bats moved away, still staring menacingly at them. Blazefang looked up carefully, seeing through the gloom by the light of the small jolts of bright electricity still flying off Spark's fur as he glared back at the cave dwelling pokémon. Standing clearly on a rock was a large weavile, who regarded them with neither fear nor loathing. Since most of the bat pokémon were staring at Blazefang, the houndour was glad when Redclaw decided to speak.

"Look, we-" the arcanine began, but a zubat interrupted him.

"We heard a shout," the small winged pokémon explained. "That houndour…was attacking her…" he waved his wing toward the small sneasel, who was still staring at Blazefang with cold eyes.

The weavile's expression did not change. "Was this attack provoked?" he asked calmly.

Before anyone else could speak, Nightshade stepped forward. "The young sneasel stopped us and told us we were trespassing," the heracross explained. "We did not know it, though the claw marks we saw on the cave walls must have been there to try and lead us away from here. We should have heeded the warning, but we are strangers to this place. We tried to explain to the sneasel that we did not mean to intrude into anyone's territory and it was purely an accident, but for whatever reason she did not want to help us find a way out. That houndour there, Blazefang, pushed her to the ground, and for that I apologize to you for him. It was uncalled for, though to be fair, the young sneasel attacked him first. We don't want to fight anymore, however. We only want to get out of this cave safely, and to find our friends. We will leave this cavern immediately if that is your desire."

As Nightshade finished the weavile appeared much calmer. "Then I believe this has simply been a misunderstanding," he replied. "You are free to go."

Blazefang looked up in surprise, only to duck down again as several of the bats swooped low and vanished into the darkness. "Wait!" he called to the weavile, walking forward. "Can you help us find a way out?" The weavile seemed to look a bit hesitant and Blazefang quickly added in an attempt to persuade him, "I know something you might need to know. There could be an army of pokémon searching through this cave and you need to be warned about what they're like. They've been chasing me because of the Forbidden Attack and I've been…"

He paused, for a hush had come over those still remaining in the cavern. Blazefang froze. He realized he'd just made a very bad mistake. Now they knew that the reason an army could be coming was that they were chasing him. Yet when the weavile spoke, it was quite a different reaction to what Blazefang had expected.

"Did you say…Forbidden Attack?" the weavile asked him.

"Yes," Blazefang replied. The thought to lie didn't even enter his brain at the moment; he was just focused on being able to leave the cavern without being attacked again. "I…I know the Forbidden Attack Shadowflare," he added, wondering if that would intimidate these pokémon a little.

The weavile's expression changed to one of worry. "Then we need to talk," he told Blazefang and the others. "Come with me…I believe this concerns every one of us."

"But…but…Shadeclaw…" the small sneasel spoke in a worried voice, "we can't trust them to keep this a secret! We can't let them into our sacred cavern!"

"Star, this is much more important!" Shadeclaw replied, while Redclaw and Spark exchanged confused looks. "Besides," the weavile continued, "they do not seem like the type to want to cause us harm in any way."

"But must you speak with them _there_?" the little sneasel replied, looking horrified.

"I don't know how safe we are here now," the weavile replied. "And maybe entrusting them with our secret will convince them to keep theirs. Also I do not want to talk about such things in a place where any wandering cave pokémon could hear. I need to speak with them in private."

Star made no response, and merely nodded, hoping Shadeclaw was right. With that, the weavile stood up, addressing the four traveling pokémon that stood before him. "Now," he told them, extending his claws toward them, "_follow me_."

* * *

Snowcrystal hadn't slept for long when she awoke suddenly. Looking around, she saw that Thunder had vanished again, but Rosie was sleeping soundly beside her. Stormblade was lying with his eyes closed, but she could tell he was still wide awake. As she stood up, she realized that most of the mud covering her fur had hardened, and came off easily, though her white fur was still filthy. Carefully she walked over and prodded Rosie in the shoulder.

The ninetales stirred and looked up at her sleepily. "Are we leaving already?" she asked.

"Well, we have to soon," Snowcrystal responded as Stormblade opened his eyes and looked at her. Snowcrystal turned to the tunnel Thunder had vanished to before and sighed. "I'm going to look for Thunder," she told the others, and without waiting for a response she dashed into the tunnel.

It didn't take her long to find Thunder in a small cavern. The scyther was asleep, but as soon as Snowcrystal got near her, she woke up. "Uh…we're going to leave soon," Snowcrystal began hesitantly.

"Fine," Thunder stated quickly, standing up and pushing past Snowcrystal to join the others still on the rock ledge. She turned away from Rosie and Stormblade, ready to ignore anything they might try to say to her. Snowcrystal sighed and sat down, letting the others rest.

After another short while, they got up and continued their tiresome journey through the maze of stone walls, ignoring fatigue and thirst as they sought a way to freedom from the dark underground prison. A maze of tunnels and caverns lie ahead of them, twisting and turning in random directions and often crossing paths with other tunnels.

Snowcrystal led the way soundly, keeping her gaze focused on the way ahead. After a while something suddenly made her pause. "I think I can hear water up ahead…" she whispered, running forward toward the sound for a moment before remembering that the others couldn't keep up, and slowing down. However, even at a slower pace she still nearly stumbled into the water before she saw it.

The faint glow from her crystal and the flickering firelight from her ember attack shone over the rocky ground in front of her which sloped gently down to a pool of crystal clear water. However there was something hauntingly eerie about the place, something mysterious. The water was shallow near where Snowcrystal was standing and the rock beneath the water was smooth, but from what she could see further on, the water got steadily deeper. As she softly blew a slightly bigger flame into the air, she realized that something under the water was glittering. Rosie seemed to notice it immediately as well.

"Look!" the ninetales cried. "There are lots of little shiny stones under the water!"

"I think they're crystals," Snowcrystal replied. "Just really small ones."

Rosie walked closer to the water, bending down to lap at its smooth surface. Snowcrystal and the others walked toward it and did the same. After a long while of traveling through the cave, the water tasted very cool and refreshing. Snowcrystal felt oddly comfortable in this cavern, and it wasn't until she used another fire attack to light up the area and saw Stormblade shivering that she knew why-it was colder here. Glancing over her own muddy fur, Snowcrystal gently felt the water with her paw. It didn't seem_too_ cold despite the temperature of the cavern. "Well, I guess it would be nice to wash this mud off while we're here," Snowcrystal told the others before wading into the pool.

The growlithe felt a sudden rush of unease at the feeling of the water lapping gently at her fur, but she pushed the feeling to the back of her mind. Fire types usually found water uncomfortable, but a little swim was no hydro pump attack; it couldn't hurt her. She waded a bit further before turning to look at the other three. All of them were still standing on the bank.

"What's the matter with you guys?" Snowcrystal asked them, letting her fire attack die out so that she could speak.

"I'd rather be covered in mud than wet," Rosie stated simply.

"It looks cold…" Stormblade whispered wearily.

Just out of pure curiosity, Rosie turned to Thunder. "So what's your excuse?" she asked.

"I don't want to get wet," Thunder told the ninetales with a hint of annoyance.

"It's not as cold as it looks," Snowcrystal told the others, directing her statement particularly at Stormblade. She thought it might even help him; the scratches she had gotten from previous battles felt soothed by the water. "You three all need your wounds cleaned, and the water makes mine feel better. You should try it."

"My wounds are fine filthy," Rosie replied hurriedly. "They don't need to be wet. They just…don't."

Snowcrystal rolled her eyes. "Then provide some light for us, ok?" she told her, and surprisingly, Rosie didn't argue.

Though the thought of a cool pool of water was appealing, Stormblade still wasn't sure he liked the idea of getting wet when he was already cold, but he needed to clean his wounds somehow. With slight hesitation, he hobbled closer to the water's edge to stand in the shallowest part, still looking uncertain.

Thunder stayed put. "I'm not a water type," she muttered. "I'm staying right here."

Stormblade turned to look at her. It struck him as odd at first that she would refuse, but then it occurred to him that she might have never been in water her entire life. Wild scyther had a natural liking for water. It wasn't uncommon for forest scyther to clean themselves in shallow ponds or streams, and there was usually plenty of prey around those areas too. He was sure that if Thunder had grown up in a forest and was used to it, or even just gave it a chance once, she would like it. "Why don't you just try it?" he asked her. "You might-"

"No," Thunder said firmly.

"It would at least clean your wounds a bit," Stormblade replied.

Thunder looked indecisive for a moment, but after a few seconds of hesitation, she gave in and walked past Stormblade and toward Snowcrystal, ignoring the pain that flared up in her leg when the water first touched the wounds. Sighing, she walked closer to Snowcrystal, who had managed to wash the mud out of her fur and was pouncing on some of the larger crystals beneath the water. As Thunder walked past, Snowcrystal swam to the edge of the pool and climbed out, setting a crystal by the edge of the water and then jumping back in with a splash to find another.

"What are you doing that for?" Rosie asked when Snowcrystal surfaced again with another crystal in her mouth.

Snowcrystal set it down by the other one and just shrugged. "I don't know," she stated innocently. "I just like them. I wonder how many pokémon actually get to see this place. It doesn't look like many have been here."

Thunder, who had been listening, didn't agree with Snowcrystal about liking the crystals. Some of the large crystals were sharp and cut into the wounds on her feet, further aggravating her. When she bent down to look at them, she didn't think of them as fascinating or beautiful; they were just a nuisance that made wading in the water a lot less pleasant.

Stormblade hadn't gone deep enough into the water to see the crystals, and instead lay down in the shallowest part of the pool, where the rock beneath was smooth. Seeing this, Snowcrystal brought one of the crystals over to show him.

Despite not wanting to get in the water, Rosie was glad of the chance to relax. Her leg was paining her, though after she lay down to rest for a while, she felt a little better, but was still very tired. Listening to Snowcrystal talk to Stormblade, even though he didn't respond, Rosie sighed and closed her eyes, letting her thoughts drift peacefully away into sleep…

She had nearly fallen asleep when something made her jolt awake. Somewhere from within the cave, there was a strange sound. It sounded like a calm, peaceful melody, which was at the same time haunting and eerie. "What's that?" Rosie asked, sitting up quickly.

Snowcrystal, who had had her head under the water during the time, looked up, confused. "What's what?"

"I heard it too," Thunder said calmly, facing the darkness away from the others, where the pool of water got deeper.

Snowcrystal waded over to her and used a very small flame wheel to light up the area more. The water went on much farther than she had expected, deep into a maze of caverns. It was more like an underground lake than a pool. Her eyes widened in surprise; she couldn't even see where the water ended, and in several places it vanished into dark tunnels.

"Don't use fire attacks!" Rosie growled. "Do you want whatever made that noise coming here?"

"Sorry," Snowcrystal muttered hastily, letting the flame die out. "Come on. I think we should get out of here in case whatever it is isn't friendly." She turned to leave and nudged Thunder's leg, nearly getting kicked in response.

"Sounds like a good idea," Rosie muttered, standing up and stepping back as Snowcrystal stepped ashore, shaking water from her pelt. "Come on, Stormblade," the ninetales called to the scyther.

At this point, Stormblade hardly cared whether or not there was an unfriendly pokémon lurking about; the water felt slightly soothing on his aching wounds, and he didn't want to move. However, knowing that his friends could possibly be in danger if they stayed in the area, he slowly got up and stumbled over to them.

After Thunder had reached them, Snowcrystal led the way into a tunnel that led away from the water, the others following uncertainly behind her. After only about a few yards they emerged into another cavern which bordered the lake on another side. There was no sign of the haunting melody, and the group carried on.

"Wonder what that sound was…" Snowcrystal mused to the others as she climbed over several slippery wet rocks, leaving the lake behind her.

"Do we really want to know?" Rosie muttered, trying to catch up with Snowcrystal, while Thunder waited at the topmost rock, her gaze fixed on a tunnel ahead that sloped downwards.

Snowcrystal lifted her muzzle and closed her eyes, pushing all her troubled thoughts out of her mind as she focused on trying to identify a single scent, even the smallest hint that an exit to the cave could be near. After a moment she sighed and opened her eyes. She had sensed nothing. "Come on," she told the others, trying to look confident. "I think the air smells fresher through here." None of the others argued or noticed her growing unease, and she padded into the sloping tunnel silently. She felt bad about leading them when she had no idea where she was going, but all she could do was choose a path and hope for the best. The others didn't need to worry. It would only make things worse.

For a little while they kept walking, Snowcrystal often having to go back and encourage Stormblade while Rosie and Thunder waited. It was during one of the times when Stormblade had fallen far behind that while waiting for him, Rosie noticed the faint sound of rushing water. The ninetales looked up at Thunder. "Do you hear that?" she asked.

"I've been hearing it for a while," the scyther replied briskly, not even turning to look at Rosie. The ninetales said nothing, remembering how Thunder had reacted after saving Stormblade before. She obviously didn't like being talked to much.

Rosie slowly lowered her head toward the ground, surprising a sigh while lightly scraping the smooth stone floor with her claws. She was a bit thirsty again, and the sound of the water nearby was making her want to get up and keep going.

The sound of approaching pawsteps reached the ninetales' ears. She looked up as Snowcrystal arrived, followed much more slowly by Stormblade. "Thunder and I heard water up ahead," Rosie told her, getting to her feet again. "It's probably nearby. I can lead the way."

To her relief Snowcrystal nodded, and Rosie limped briskly over the smooth boulders lining the floor of the cave while listening for the increasingly loud sound of rushing water.

Snowcrystal had been trotting beside Stormblade when she heard Rosie give a sudden shriek. For an instant she froze, then bounded forward until she reached the ninetales' side, nearly falling victim to the same trap Rosie had just narrowly avoided.

The two fire types were standing on a rocky ledge which dropped steeply into a small, yet deep and swiftly flowing river. Rosie stood frozen, her eyes wide as she imagined what would have happened had she not managed to scramble away from the edge at the last instant.

"What are you standing there for?" Thunder snapped from behind the two. "Make your fire attacks brighter! I can hardly see."

Snowcrystal backed further away from the water, motioning for Rosie to do the same. "All right Thunder," she replied, lighting up the cavern and peering around. They had seemed to have reached a dead end, with the only way past the tunnel being the river. "Let's turn back," she whispered. "There's nowhere else to go."

"Turn back?" Stormblade rasped from behind the others, looking thoroughly horrified at the thought. "We can't go back that far-there must be some other way…I don't want to walk over all those rocks again."

"Calm down!" Rosie growled at him impatiently, before walking carefully along the edge of the rock overhang above the river, peering carefully at her surroundings. All at once she spotted something that both lifted her spirits and caused her to freeze to the spot in fear at the same time. "Look at this," she told the others, motioning to a narrow ledge winding up the cave wall above the river, leading to what looked like another cavern above the one the swift-flowing water was vanishing into. "Looks like the only way to get any farther is to climb up that ledge to those rocks up there."

Snowcrystal looked doubtfully at Stormblade. With one leg rendered completely useless, the scyther would have a hard time balancing on such a narrow ledge, but Stormblade seemed to show no fear. She could clearly see a look of dread on his face, but despite that, he looked calm and ready. Snowcrystal noticed Rosie looking at her expectantly, and remembered that she was the one who had to make the decision. The ninetales looked afraid, but there was trust in her eyes. Snowcrystal thought it over for a moment before replying.

"Let's go up to that cavern," she told the others, walking over to the smooth stone and stepping onto the first part of the ledge. "Go carefully, but not too slowly. The sooner we reach those rocks up there, the sooner we're safe." Deciding it would be best to get the ordeal over with and not give the others too much time to dwell on the decision she had made, Snowcrystal began making her way along the ledge, feeling very at ease after having lived so long on perilous mountaintops.

Rosie, who followed after her, was not so calm. The ninetales' body was pressed closely against the wall as she stared wide-eyed at the swirling waters churning below her paws as if she expected some monster pokémon to leap out of the river and attack her. She made slow progress as she followed Snowcrystal one very shaky step at a time.

Thunder followed next, not seeming at all worried. She had decided to walk on the ledge instead of flying across; her injured wing throbbed horribly even after the small distance she had flown in the mud-filled cavern. The scyther felt dizzy and weak, but she pushed it to the back of her mind-she could handle it. Stormblade went last, moving slowly yet confidently behind Thunder.

It hadn't taken Snowcrystal long to reach the top of the opposite wall and climb up into a small cavern with a low ceiling above where the river vanished into darkness. Seeing Snowcrystal sitting in safety seemed to give Rosie hope, and the ninetales increased her pace, eager to be safely beside her friend.

She hadn't gone five paces when her back paw struck a large, loose rock, which tilted downwards, causing Rosie's hind legs to slide off the edge of the rock wall. Scrabbling furiously with both forepaws, the ninetales pushed her back paws against the rock and hoisted herself upwards, before darting toward Snowcrystal and the safe cavern above. Moving so fast, her paws seemed to fly over the stones, and she did not stop until she had reached Snowcrystal's side and sat in a shivering huddle beside her.

Thunder was about to follow when she peered back at Stormblade. Despite his injuries, the male scyther didn't seem to be having much of a problem following her, although his progress was slow. Though when she looked at him, what caught her eye was not the way he was traveling, but the way he had stopped and was looking at her.

"Thunder? Are you…all right?"

Confused, Thunder narrowed her eyes. "Of course I'm all right!" she shouted. "Why don't you keep going instead of just standing there-" She paused suddenly, realizing that her entire body was shaking, badly, and she felt dizzy. Her vision was blurring, and she closed her eyes tightly, waiting until most of the dizziness passed. The last thing she wanted was to pass out right then and there. Once she thought she wasn't about to faint, she opened her eyes and headed along the ledge again, despite how weak she felt.

She thought Stormblade shouted something, but she couldn't hear him clearly, and she was certain the cry that Snowcrystal made sounded much farther away than it should have, and her vision was blurred. But none of that was important as the next thing she knew she had stepped on the loose rock that Rosie had stumbled over before. She froze, trying to climb back up to safety. However her strength had completely left her. Before she could try to fly, she felt herself plunging into the icy water. For a moment she struggled and her head broke the surface, only to be thrust under again into a world of inky blackness. Suddenly wide awake with her vision clearer, she fought to reach the surface again, catching a brief glimpse of Snowcrystal and Rosie's horrified expressions before she vanished into the dark tunnel and away from any light the previous cavern had provided.

Before she knew it her head was underwater again, and this time she felt herself falling over a rock face with the water for several feet before slamming back into the river again and being swept even faster along with it. Fighting frantically to reach the surface, she realized very quickly that scythes certainly weren't any good for swimming. Exerting what little remained of her strength, she at last managed to reach the surface again and gasp for air. Everything around her was shrouded in complete darkness; she could not tell where the river was taking her nor could she pinpoint the direction she had come from. Still struggling to keep her head above the water, she could feel herself loosing strength fast, and the cold water was numbing her limbs. Frantically she wondered if there was some way she could fly out of the water to safety, not realizing in her dazed state that that was impossible in her current situation.

The scyther was caught by complete surprise as her shoulder was suddenly slammed into a pillar of stone, causing her to cry out in pain. An instant later and water rushed over her, forcing her under again into the swirling black chaos. But all along her right side she could feel smooth stone, and once she surfaced again she quickly realized that it was a ledge of some sort, leading up to the pillar she had crashed into. Before the dark water could pull her under again, she reached out with both scythes, jamming them into the grooves of the rock. She could feel the water pulling at her, making it difficult to hold fast to the slippery wet stone. She was afraid to move her scythes in case she lost her hold, but she knew that if she didn't, she would loose her strength and the water would sweep her away.

Little by little she moved her scythes further up the rock, while scraping her claws against it underwater in an attempt to find a foothold. Painfully she crawled onto the rock and away from the water, finding herself on a small rocky ledge near the cave wall. There didn't seem to be anywhere to go other than back into the water, and she wasn't about to do that.

Feeling exhausted, she lay down, deciding that when she felt stronger she would fly to a place where she could start looking for the others. As much as she hated to admit it, she would have to depend on them until her wounds started to heal. Then, she would be able to learn to be a better hunter. The problem that lay ahead of her now was finding her way through the darkness. No light shone in the cavern; it made no difference whether she opened or closed her eyes. Thunder only knew where she was by the sound of the underground river rushing by.

The lone scyther closed her eyes, listening to the river as she rested. After a short while, she felt something wet and sticky running down her back. Her first thought was that it was water, but she quickly realized from the smell that it was blood from the whip cuts on her back, which had obviously opened up again. Frustrated, Thunder stood up, slashing her scythes against the rock wall in agitation while muttering to herself. "Stupid cuts are never going to heal at this rate…now how am I supposed to get away from those other poké-"

Thunder froze as the same eerie melody she and the others had heard before returned, distant at first, but growing steadily closer. Thunder whirled around, unable to see anything in the darkness. "Where are you?" she yelled blindly in the direction of the river. "Come out and fight!"

At first no sound met her cry. Even the eerie melody was gone. Thunder waited, staring into the inky darkness. Then all at once, something burst out of the water, taking Thunder by surprise. The scyther could see nothing, but sound and smell told her that something massive was looming in front of her. Her first thought was gyarados, but she quickly realized that this scent was very different, and she couldn't recognize it.

Overcoming her shock quickly, she darted forward, stopping just at the edge of the rock ledge and swiping at the strange creature with her scythes. The whatever-it-was swerved out of the way, unharmed. Thunder stood completely still, unsure of where it was now. Then out of nowhere, something long and scaly crashed into her, pinning her against the wall and holding her there. She could hear a second creature come to the surface of the water and wondered how they managed to not get swept away. A small but bright light from somewhere further up the river appeared next, and through what little light it provided from that far away, Thunder could see two pairs of eyes staring straight at her.


	34. Shadeclaw’s Warning

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 34- Shadeclaw's Warning**

Nightshade and his friends, as well as Blazefang, were all thoroughly confused yet made no objections as Shadeclaw beckoned them to follow him. Spark, knowing that the weavile wanted to speak with Blazefang most, kept pushing the houndour roughly ahead of the others as all the bat pokémon still remaining in the cavern watched them suspiciously. Blazefang diverted his attention to the ground, feeling every one of their gazes boring into him. Their suspicion and mistrust hung over him like an ominous dark cloud.

Shadeclaw approached a group of odd-looking tall stalagmites, walking up to the rock formation from the side and seeming to vanish behind it. Redclaw and Nightshade exchanged perplexed glances and the group hesitantly followed.

Nightshade, who had approached the rock first, quickly realized that a wide tunnel was hidden behind the stalagmites, hidden almost perfectly from a distance. Motioning to the others to follow him, the heracross walked into the dark opening. The others followed, the bat pokémon leaving them and flying off into other tunnels.

At first it was pitch black, but no one dared use a fire or electric attack for light in case the weavile mistook it for a threat. There was no sign of the small sneasel, and Nightshade guessed that she had gone into another cavern. The heracross lowered his head when he felt his horn scrape against the roof of the tunnel which was closer to the floor than it had been at the beginning of the rocky passageway, and he heard Redclaw mutter something in pain as his head struck against it.

Then all at once the cavern got brighter. Nightshade noticed an opening to a big cavern up ahead, and the light coming from it seemed brighter than any he'd seen in the cave so far. When the group stepped into the cavern, their eyes widened in amazement.

Glittering gems of all sizes were embedded in the rock from floor to ceiling. Several of the luminous crystals also jutted from the floor and walls, casting soft light on the shimmering stones and making them glisten like diamonds. Looking up, Nightshade saw several massive stalactites reaching down from the roof of the cave far above them like jagged fangs. He found it impossible to tell how big they really were from a distance, though they looked gigantic.

"This way," Shadeclaw said calmly, and the heracross quickly turned to follow the weavile, his gaze passing over what looked like crude drawings made by pokémon claws on one of the cave walls. They were led into a winding tunnel, lit by soft multicolored light from numerous small crystals of various hues. Even in the situation they were in, Nightshade had to admit-the sight was stunningly beautiful.

The group passed a few small entrances to other tunnels, though they didn't have much time for a closer look at any of them. At last Shadeclaw led them into a small cavern lit by crystals that glowed a soft white. Once he made sure that none of the other cave pokémon were around to eavesdrop, the weavile turned to the group of pokémon in front of him, concentrating especially on Blazefang. His first question to the houndour was direct and clear.

"Where did you find the stone that gave you Shadowflare?"

Blazefang was taken aback, but at a glare from Spark and Redclaw he knew better than to do anything but tell the truth. "I found it by a bunch of rocks in the lands near my pack's territory," he answered. "It was by the large snow mountains. I…I didn't know what it was at the time. There were a bunch of ghost pokémon who I guess were guarding it…" his voice trailed off and he fell silent.

"Ghost pokémon?" Shadeclaw repeated in confusion but decided to say nothing more on the matter. "Listen," he told Blazefang sternly, looking the houndour fully in the eyes. "No matter what you think…no matter what urge possesses you…you must _never_ use that attack under _any_ circumstances, understand?"

"Look, I don't want to use any more than you want me to!" Blazefang replied hastily, "I-"

"_How many times have you used it_?" Shadeclaw interrupted, fixing Blazefang with another piercing stare.

"Twice…" Blazefang muttered regretfully, still deciding to be truthful. "But I've resisted it since then. I realize that it's dangerous…do you…do you know anything else about the For-"

"Once should have been enough to figure it out!" Shadeclaw shouted angrily. Blazefang recoiled in shock, and the weavile's expression returned to calm. "I am sorry…" he muttered quietly. "But I don't know how to express how important it is that you never use the attack again."

Spark couldn't resist the urge to speak up. He turned to Blazefang. "Yeah, Blazefang! So don't roast any more scyther, all right?"

Shadeclaw turned to look at the jolteon, curious. Without saying anything to him he looked at Blazefang again. "Did any of your friends witness the Forbidden Attack?"

"Look," Redclaw pointed out, "we are _not_ his friends."

Blazefang glared at the arcanine. "Of course not!" he growled. "But we're not here to fight about that are we? Shut up!"

Spark bared his fangs threateningly and his fur turned to pointed spines that sparked with bright electricity. "And you're not here to give us orders!" the jolteon cried.

"Quiet!" Shadeclaw told Spark with another stern glance. "Blazefang…" he spoke in a quieter tone, looking into the houndour's confused red eyes, "do you know what will happen if you use your Forbidden Attack too many times?"

Blazefang thought for a moment, remembering what Wildflame had told him. "It…it gets stronger…" he stammered, hoping he was remembering right. "It gets…harder to control…"

Shadeclaw's serious look did not change. "That's not all," he told the houndour. "Not only is this attack devastating to all it encounters, but use it one too many times…_and you lose your mind_."

Blazefang stood frozen to the spot, trying to contemplate what exactly that would mean. He tried not to show it in his expression, but the thought absolutely mortified him.

Shadeclaw seemed satisfied at how easily he had gotten through to the houndour. When he spoke again, he addressed all five of the travelers. "I warn you of this because only a season ago, somewhere near this place, the Forbidden Attack _Deathfreeze_ was used by an ice type pokémon. No one knows how the pokémon stumbled upon it but luckily he was stopped before he was able to do much damage. However those who stopped him knew they couldn't kill him-they had to keep him alive. Though they realized…the attack had changed him. He wasn't sane. From what I heard the pokémon who found him took him far away, having to use hypnosis or sleep powder any time he showed signs of using the attack. I am sure that is not what you want your fate to be," he added with an almost sympathetic look at Blazefang.

Wildflame, who had been listening carefully along with the others, looked horrified. "So there's someone out there who knows a Forbidden Attack and can't control it?" she gasped. "Then it's only a matter of time before-"

"When I last heard of this the pokémon was being kept under constant watch," Shadeclaw replied. "The attack seems to be triggered easiest by anger, fear, or pain…they are doing all they can to prevent it. And since no traveling flying types have reported some sort of huge natural disaster, I'm rather certain they are doing a good job, but there is no telling what would happen if another one of the attacks gets out of hand. Entire forests could be destroyed in minutes!" He then turned to Blazefang once again. "Never let anyone else know you have the Forbidden Attack Shadowflare," he warned. "And I don't think I need to tell you to stay out of the way of that army."

"We need to get out of this cave fast," Redclaw interrupted. "For all we know there could be pokémon from the army that know of the exits. From what Blazefang said, their leader Cyclone is willing to do pretty much anything to get Blazefang on his side or kill him and take Shadowflare for one of his own followers. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to ambush us."

Blazefang, however, wasn't listening. Two phrases that Shadeclaw had said stood out clearly in his mind. _Forbidden Attack Deathfreeze was used by an ice type pokémon…only a season ago…_ The houndour froze. _Only a season ago…_that had been around the time when Articuno had left.

"There is an exit the army would not find it easy to get to even from the outside," Shadeclaw told Redclaw, not noticing Blazefang's look of sudden panic. "Though you will need the help of one of the water types in this cave. Mystic might be able to carry you through the water, but it will be no easy task; even at her fastest speed you'd be holding your breath a long time…"

Blazefang wasn't listening. He thought back to what Shadeclaw had said, his mind numb. The weavile had seemed like he had been avoiding mentioning what pokémon had used the attack-was that because he didn't want them to know that a legendary had fallen victim to it? Blazefang mentally shook himself. _No…_ he thought. _It was just a coincidence. Articuno had to be smarter than to use that attack more than a few times if he ever found it._

_But if he hadn't known what it was…_

"I suppose that's something we'll have to risk," Redclaw replied, interrupting the houndour's thoughts. "If it's the safest way out, I'd rather we go that way then have to risk the army finding us. But first…first we have to find our friends. Do you think…"

"I can ask some of the golbat here to search," Shadeclaw replied. "But remember, the cave is very large, it could take a bit of time. You're welcome to stay here while you wait."

The weavile stood up and led them back through the tunnel and into the largest cavern, where they were told to stay until their friends were found. Blazefang, who had nowhere to go, chose to stay in the cavern as well, at the side opposite from the others. He was still thoroughly shocked at the thought of Articuno being a possible candidate for the owner of Deathfreeze. Eventually, he managed to shake the thought from his mind…or at least nearly.

_Articuno wouldn't have done that…he couldn't have found a Forbidden Attack…right?_

* * *

As soon as he had seen Thunder vanish into the dark tunnel, it no longer occurred to him to try and move up to the small cavern where Snowcrystal and Rosie waited. It was only their shout that brought Stormblade to his senses again. Forcing himself to focus only on the task ahead, he made his way up to his two friends, almost forgetting the pain of his wounds. When he sat down in the safety of the cavern above, there was nothing more to distract his thoughts.

_Thunder was gone._

For a moment he sat completely still, gazing into the dark water below as if he expected Thunder to somehow manage to swim back to them, then he turned to the others. "I need to go look for her," he told them.

In that moment Snowcrystal saw a bit of his old self returning to the look in his dark blue eyes. She remembered the strong scyther who had sought to protect her and the others, the scyther who was able to defend and to help. She had to remind herself that that Stormblade was long gone. Reluctantly, she opened her mouth to speak, but Rosie spoke up first.

"Are you _crazy_!?" the ninetales cried. "You'd get yourself_killed_!"

That statement seemed to come as a shock to the scyther, and the fire in Stormblade's eyes died down to be replaced with the same misery and helplessness the others were used to seeing. "Oh…" he mumbled, as if just realizing it, "you're right…"

Snowcrystal stood still, looking from him to Rosie. She wanted to help him…she wanted to help them both. But there was nothing she could do for Stormblade. At that moment, she finally realized what it meant for him to be injured by Blazefang's Forbidden Attack. If what Spark had learned about them was true, it would never heal-ever. Stormblade was a young scyther, and yet he would never again be able to fly or hunt or live as a normal pokémon. He would he never again have practice battles for fun with other scyther, even though battling meant so much to them. He would never again be able to help or protect those he cared about. He would feel like he was only hindering them. Even though she had known this all along, it seemed to her as if only now was she realizing what this really meant. _What did Stormblade really have to live for anymore?_

She looked up to see Rosie peering over the edge of the rock down into the swirling black water, looking both worried and terrified, and Stormblade, who was staring sightlessly ahead at nothing. Quietly she walked over to them. "I'll look for her," she whispered quietly.

Rosie was the first to speak. "What?" the ninetales asked, looking at her with a shocked expression. "How would you-"

"I'm going to find Thunder," Snowcrystal repeated, looking the ninetales sternly in the eye, making it clear that she would not be convinced otherwise. "I have my fire attacks and my crystal to light the way," she explained. "I want you two to stay here. Don't leave this place. I'll find my way back."

"How?" Rosie replied. "You're not going…into the river are you?" she asked with a hint of panic.

"Not if I don't have to," Snowcrystal replied as she jumped onto the thin stone ledge leading down to the larger cavern by the river. "Stormblade," she added, turning her head to look at him, "watch over Rosie. Make sure you both stay safe." She then continued to make her way down the ledge. Rosie's eyes narrowed in annoyance that Snowcrystal was telling Stormblade to watch over her, but she said nothing.

Snowcrystal was glad that Rosie didn't reply; she had wanted to give Stormblade some sense of feeling important, though she was not sure if it had worked at all. When she reached the big cavern below, she turned and faced the swift dark river. Her eyes scanned the walls on either side, a small flame wheel lighting up the area. At first she saw nothing, but then a small narrow ledge half hidden by shadows leading down toward the water caught her eye. Letting the fire die out, she let herself be guided by the light of her crystal, and stepped onto the ledge and walked steadily along it.

It was frighteningly narrow-even a pokémon of her small size would have trouble walking across it. Only her experiences scaling steep rocky mountain cliffs kept her calm and steady as she slowly walked across. She glanced up with a small hopeful smile at Rosie, who was peering down from above, then with a deep breath she walked along the ledge into the tunnel and plunged herself into darkness.

* * *

Thunder attempted to twist free, but with her arms pinned tightly against the rock by the creature holding her, she was unable to move her scythes. So, she did the next best thing, and sank all of her fangs into the pokémon's scales. She could feel the larger creature flinch, but it did not move.

She was trying to think of anything else she could do to get it to release her when the second creature spoke up. "Wait…" the voice said. "This pokémon can't fight us. It's injured." There was a pause and the same creature asked, "What do you think it is, Mystic?"

The largest of the pokémon slowly drew back from Thunder, who noticed that the light she had seen further upriver was coming closer. Instantly ready for any sort of surprise attack, Thunder staggered upright, watching the pokémon move closer and reveal itself to be a lanturn…an electric type. Her whole body tensed, eying the first two pokémon who had come across her. As the lanturn moved closer, the light from the glowing orbs on his long antennae illuminated the area. Thunder was staring straight at a large milotic and a lapras. The milotic was much bigger than Thunder had thought they should be-its massive serpentine form seemed to tower over her. The light from the lanturn reflected softly off of the graceful pokémon's pearly white scales. To Thunder, it almost looked beautiful.

Thunder stood glaring as the three pokémon stood staring at her strangely, as if they didn't know what she was. The lapras, who didn't seem to have trouble staying still in the swiftly-flowing river, looked at Thunder curiously, but kept her distance. The milotic turned to the other two pokémon.

"I don't know," she said slowly. "I've never seen it before. But it's obviously no water type." She then looked at Thunder. "Hello," she stated calmly. "My name is Mystic. This is River," she added as she motioned to the lapras. She then waved her tail toward the lanturn. "And this is-"

With lightning speed Thunder darted forward, close enough to the edge of the stone ledge to swing both scythes at the milotic. Mystic narrowly avoided having her neck sliced open as she quickly jerked back.

"Not a very friendly pokémon is she?" the lanturn muttered as the three drew back from Thunder far enough to be out of range.

"Well I don't blame her!" River the lapras said with a glare at the lanturn. "Mystic did attack her and probably hurt her worse. Plus she's trapped here." She turned to Thunder, trying to look friendly, and said, "I can take you to a safe place. You can ride on my back. It won't take very long-"

"GO AWAY!" Thunder screamed, backing away from the edge of the rock and crouching down in the shadows away from the lanturn's light.

The three water types looked at each other in either worry or confusion. Mystic sighed and turned away. "Let's leave it alone then…" she said smoothly, "if that's what it wants…"

The lapras turned to Thunder again quietly. "I really think you should let me take you to a safer place," she said softly. "The others won't hurt you…"

Thunder wanted nothing more than to show that lapras that she wasn't the weak pokémon it seemed to think she was, but now that she thought about it, she needed to get away from the river to find a way out of the cave. And after all, if the lapras tried to trick her, she would be riding on her back, and very capable of giving her a slash to the neck if she was threatened. "Fine!" the scyther spat reluctantly. "Take me to a place where I can leave the river and find my own way out!"

As the lapras moved closer, the milotic hissed a warning. "Careful River," she warned in a smooth but wary voice. "That pokémon is dangerous."

"All she wants is to get out," River told her. "I don't think she belongs in this cave." She then turned to Thunder again, trying to smile. "Well, come on!"

A few moments later and Thunder was crouched down on the lapras's spiny gray shell as the water pokémon sped through the water, guided by the light of her lanturn friend from up ahead. Mystic swam gracefully behind them, and Thunder glanced warily back at her every few seconds. Her scythes were by her sides, but her whole body was tensed, ready to attack the lapras's neck or head at any sign that these pokémon were about to try and harm her. Every so often River would ask her questions; _"What is your name?...What are you doing here?...How did you get those wounds?"_

She ignored all of them. She wanted to get away from these pokémon, and get away as soon as possible. The journey, though it felt like hours to the injured scyther, really only lasted a few minutes. Though when the water pokémon stopped, Thunder noticed the cavern she had ended up in was colder, and she could not help shivering. River swam calmly up to the riverbank.

"There. You're safe here," she told Thunder in what the scyther thought was a too-sweet voice.

Without hesitation the scyther leaped off her back and onto the rocky ground, holding back a cry at the pain that surged up her leg. Instinctively she put her scythe to the ground to steady herself, but that only sent pain scorching through her newly injured shoulder.

Seeing this, River looked concerned. "You're hurt bad, aren't you?" the lapras asked, squinting through the semi-darkness.

"No!" Thunder growled. "Leave me alone…"

"She's obviously not an inhabitant of this cave," Mystic told River with a disapproving glance at the scyther, while her lanturn friend nodded.

"Do you remember the way out?" River asked the milotic. "Maybe you could help her!"

"I only know of one way out," Mystic replied. "And it would not help her. One can only get there by swimming underwater, and she wouldn't be able to hold her breath that long. Now River and Whirlpool, come, the savage creature wants to be left alone."

The milotic and lanturn swiftly turned and vanished, leaving the cave almost dark-the only lighting coming from some dimly glowing pale green and blue crystals, gently lighting the area around them with their faintly pulsating glow. Thunder couldn't tell if River was still there, and really, she didn't care. When she finally chanced a glance back, there was no sign of the lapras. With a sigh she lay down, telling herself that no random stranger pokémon would have reason to help her without anything in return. She had been right to tell them to leave.

Quietly she lay down, ignoring the pain from her wounds. She decided she would rest a while, then find her way out of the cave. She felt exhausted. Maybe, she thought, she'd even be able to sleep for a while…

Thunder's attempts to sleep were suddenly interrupted by a large splash as River surfaced from the water again. The scyther stood up, watching the lapras set a dead goldeen by the edge of the river.

River looked at Thunder uncertainly, watching the scyther who was staring at her angrily. The lapras had not known what species of pokémon Thunder was or what she ate, but judging by the fact that the stranger had two fangs jutting down from her mouth, she assumed she had to be a carnivore. "I brought you some food…" she told Thunder hesitantly. "I'll just leave it here if you want it." She quickly turned and left, not wanting to startle the scyther any longer.

Thunder did not move even after the lapras left. She waited for a long while, wondering if it was some sort of trap, before she couldn't take her hunger anymore and she warily limped to the edge of the river and picked up the small water pokémon and brought it back to safety. It didn't take her long to finish eating it, and after she was done, she stood up, looking for a tunnel to walk into. She felt surprisingly stronger. Without a backward glance, she turned and limped into the nearest tunnel, glad to leave the river behind. From a distance, River watched her sadly, before turning and diving back into the water.

* * *

Snowcrystal couldn't stop herself from shivering, though not with cold, but with fear. The tunnel was dark and damp and the rocks below her feet were slicked wet with frigid water. Further along, she had found the going easier as there were several large boulders by the riverside to climb, but the further she went, the more worried she became. There was no sign of Thunder anywhere…no scent or any other indication that the injured scyther had made it out of the water. Though Snowcrystal wasn't usually bothered by cold-she found the chilly rock tunnel threatening and oppressive. She didn't know how well a thin, weak and hurt scyther could stand up to cold. She wanted to turn back, but she couldn't face her friends while having to tell them she didn't know where Thunder was. Taking a deep breath, she kept going.

* * *

Thunder's newfound strength hadn't lasted long. She hadn't gone far, and already she felt the exhaustion and dizziness she had experienced before returning. Nevertheless, she forced herself to take one shaky step after another, ignoring the drops of blood that fell to the ground from her shoulder and whichever of her other wounds happened to be bleeding at the time. She felt weakened, completely drained of energy as if she had just come out of one of Master's arena battles. She wanted nothing more than to lay down and rest…

_And why couldn't she?_

Slightly unnerved at the fact that the realization that there wasn't anyone to force her to keep going hadn't come until now, she looked around quickly, spotting a sheltered corner in the small cavern she was standing in. With a lurching, painful stride she made her way over to it. By the time she reached the sheltered spot, her strength left her completely, and she crumpled in a senseless heap beside the still gray walls.

* * *

Snowcrystal stood peering over a steep ledge, watching the river flow swiftly downwards into another tunnel. Carefully she jumped down from the rock formations jutting from the cave wall and landed carefully on the stone riverside below. The space between the water and the cave wall was wider here, and she could see tunnels veering off to the sides. As she was about to follow the river, she faintly noticed a familiar scent. _Thunder!_

Turning around, she followed the scent carefully into one of the tunnels. It struck her as strange that she hadn't noticed it by the river, but she realized that Thunder could have found a way out elsewhere and wandered through the tunnels for a while. With the scent getting stronger, Snowcrystal dashed forward, and almost stumbled upon the limp form of the scyther who now lay against the wall. Shocked, Snowcrystal approached her carefully, wondering if she had gotten hurt worse. She nudged the side of Thunder's head, and when the scyther didn't respond, the growlithe whined softly, curling up beside her and feeling both greatly relieved and deeply worried at the same time. She decided to stay there and wait until Thunder was strong enough to make the journey back to the others.

Snowcrystal hadn't waited long when Thunder started to stir, her eyes opening slowly as she looked around. Upon seeing Snowcrystal the scyther jerked away from her. "What are you doing here?" was all Thunder could manage to say, though her voice sounded strained and weak.

Snowcrystal quickly stood up and backed away to give Thunder some space. "I went looking for you," she told her calmly. "Rosie and Stormblade are waiting…do you think…do you think you could fly back to where we were once you're feeling better?"

"I feel fine," Thunder lied, getting unsteadily to her feet.

"I don't think so," Snowcrystal told her. "You need to rest."

"We can rest when we get back to the others," Thunder replied quickly.

"You'll never make it in your condition!" Snowcrystal told her, annoyed. "Just rest for a little-everyone needs to rest sometimes."

"I know that!" Thunder shouted irritably, though surprisingly, she sat down without further argument. "But I won't stay here for long," she told Snowcrystal firmly.

Snowcrystal sighed in relief, glad that she'd gotten Thunder to listen to her at least for a little while. She only hoped that the scyther would be strong enough to fly back to the others; after all, she looked as if she could pass out again at any minute. It was no secret that Thunder's wounds were severely weakening her, and the energy she used to hide that weakness was gradually failing.

Snowcrystal waited longer than she thought Thunder wanted to, but the scyther said nothing and Snowcrystal wondered if she was secretly glad of the chance to rest more. She noticed with unease that Thunder had injured her shoulder-the one that the bullet had struck. She began to wonder just how long they should wait after all.

However, her decision was made for her as Thunder suddenly stood up, spreading her tattered wings. "Ok, let's go!" the scyther told Snowcrystal quickly, and then limped to the edge of the river and flew unsteadily above it, looking as if she could barely manage to keep from falling into the water.

Snowcrystal followed uncertainly, stepping on the wet stone ledges again as she followed Thunder, silently willing her not to loose strength and fall into the river again. Luckily, Thunder managed to make it to the rocky ledge near where they had first reached the river surprisingly quickly. Exhausted, the scyther turned to lick her injured wing.

"Thunder!"

Rosie's excited shout nearly made Thunder jump, and she turned her head to give the ninetales a loathing glance. Rosie however, didn't notice. "Stormblade! It's Thunder! Snowcrystal found her!"

Snowcrystal's fluffy white body appeared as she jumped onto a rock closer to the river's edge where Thunder was. Stormblade peered down from the rock he was standing on and looked at Thunder with first relief, then concern. "Thunder? You're alive! What happen-"

He was interrupted as Rosie shoved him gently aside. "You don't want her yelling at you again do you?" she asked him, looking annoyed. "You're probably just making it worse."

However Stormblade barely noticed. After Thunder manage to stagger painfully along the rocks and into the small tunnel Stormblade limped closer to her, only to be pushed aside roughly as she walked past.

Snowcrystal appeared next, watching the scyther with a worried expression. "Let's all rest now," she told to the others, hoping Thunder wouldn't think she was deciding that just for her. "We can try to get some sleep, then we can keep going."

"Sounds good to me," Rosie yawned, lying down by the wall of the cave and curling her nine tails around her.

Without another glance at the others, Thunder lay down as well. She did not expect to fall asleep, though while she would never admit it, she felt as if she couldn't take another step. Her wounds felt as painful as if she had just gotten them. Trying to push any thoughts of pain or exhaustion to the back of her mind, she closed her eyes.

"You know, you don't have to hide everything all the time. Hiding just makes things worse."

Furious, Thunder opened her eyes to see Stormblade standing there, leaning on his scythes for support, like he usually did. "Leave me alone!" Thunder growled, her eyes narrowing.

Stormblade didn't seem surprised at her reaction, but he didn't leave. "I just want you to know that I will do whatever I can to help you…"

"Go away," Thunder muttered angrily.

"Look, when we get out of this cave…" Stormblade began, "I…I might know of some herbs that could-"

"You're not helping."

"But I-"

"Will you just leave me alone?" Thunder shouted, making Snowcrystal and Rosie look up. "Right now all you're doing is preventing me from resting. And what could you do to help me anyways? You can't even take care of yourself. You're completely _helpless_…"

Stormblade looked down at the floor to avoid meeting Thunder's gaze. "I'm sorry," he told her, backing away. "I'll leave you alone. But…remember, if you ever need any-"

"Just go away!" Thunder growled back, turning away from Stormblade as he hobbled back to the others. To her relief, no one tried to say anything to her. Good. She didn't want to think about it anymore.

A while later, Thunder awoke feeling confused; she barely even realized that she had fallen asleep. Even though she still felt terribly weak, she didn't feel quite so bad now. She turned her head, noticing Snowcrystal standing above her. "What it is it?" she muttered in annoyance, but she didn't quite feel like yelling anymore.

Snowcrystal was smiling, which surprised Thunder. "Some golbat are here," the growlithe told her happily. "They can take us to the others…and they know a way out!"

* * *

Outside the cave, the tall grass swayed slightly with the night breeze. A group of pokémon walked by, their paws hardly making a sound as they warily glanced around them. One of them, a lucario, shivered as he stared at the dark, dank entrance to the massive cave.

"Still no sign of that Blazefang houndour," he muttered irritably. "How long does Cyclone expect us to wait here?"

"As long as it takes," another, a persian replied. "Now shut up!"

"I say we leave this place," the lucario muttered. "I've seen what Cyclone does to some of his followers. He's not the type of pokémon I want to be serving under. No one's around-let's desert 'im."

"And run into one of the other groups?" a ponyta replied. "They're all over the place waiting for that houndour to show himself! Do _you_ want to be reported to Cyclone and be dealt with by Solus?"

The lucario muttered something incoherently and focused his gaze drowsily on the cave entrance again. "Well I sure hope we don't have to stay here much longer. When's the other group going to take our place?"

"Morning," the persian replied. "Now keep still and watch for any sign of movement. One of us will find the houndour…sooner or later." The three pokémon moved into the shelter of the bushes, lying in wait by the cave exit, just like the several other groups were waiting by the many places where one of the cave's tunnels reached the surface.


	35. The Crystal Abyss

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 35-The Crystal Abyss**

It wasn't long before Snowcrystal and her friends met up with Nightshade and the others in the large cavern. The golbat knew the entire cave by heart, and quickly showed them the shortest way to the cavern where their friends rested. The going had still been somewhat slow, but this time it hadn't just been Stormblade who was slowing the group down. Thunder had been having difficulty keeping up as well, though she had tried to disguise that fact by acting as if she wanted the others to walk ahead with the strangers instead of around her.

Despite the journey being slow, everyone had made it without any danger. Now the group huddled in the cavern, listening to a few zubat who had explored the cave while looking for Snowcrystal's group talking to Shadeclaw.

"We went by a few of the exits…there are strange pokémon everywhere…just waiting. One of them shot a flamethrower at us."

"He's right. They all seemed to be expecting something."

"We know just what they're waiting for," Redclaw told them, his gaze dark and serious. "They want Blazefang's Forbidden Attack…well, Cyclone wants it for one of his fire type cronies."

In the short time the group had talked with Shadeclaw, Redclaw had explained everything they knew about Cyclone and his intentions, while Blazefang huddled sullenly in a corner of the cavern, his back pressed against the smooth rock as he listened to the conversation with dread.

"I think your only surely safe way out," the weavile leader began, "is through the exit I told you about before. You can only get there from swimming through a vast underground lake, and the exit is in the middle of a large canyon-full of tall rocks and foliage-and very difficult to climb down from the top. Flying pokémon however will find it difficult to track you with all the cover the area provides, though you will have to be careful."

"Underwater?" Rosie cried, her eyes widening. "Are you crazy? That's-"

"There are water pokémon here that would be willing to help you if I asked them to," Shadeclaw replied. "But like I mentioned to some of you earlier, it may be difficult to hold your breath for the length of time it takes a water pokémon to swim through that tunnel. But no, it certainly won't kill you," he added before Rosie could protest again. "It would be best to leave soon," he added, "in case the army finds out from any local pokémon that there is a hidden exit they haven't checked."

Almost involuntarily, Snowcrystal glanced sideways at Stormblade. The scyther was still lying motionless, sprawled across the floor the same way he had since they had reached that cavern. The raw and infected burns that covered his body looked sickly in the pale light. He gave no sign or any indication that he was listening to anyone.

"Well I think it's about time we get out of here," Nightshade told Shadeclaw, startling Snowcrystal out of her thoughts. "From the sound of it there's plenty of food and water in this canyon, so I don't see any reason for any of us to wait around here."

Spark brightened up at the mention of food, and Wildflame looked eager to keep moving. However Blazefang and Rosie both looked worried. Redclaw went to help Stormblade and the rest of the group gathered together.

"Follow me," Shadeclaw told them, and began leading the way ahead.

"We barely got a chance to rest!" Rosie mumbled as she limped after the others, keeping close to Snowcrystal and Wildflame.

During the short journey, Snowcrystal couldn't help feeling worried as they walked through strange passages and tunnels that twisted in every direction. She had no sense of where they were going or where they had come from anymore, but she reminded herself that Shadeclaw knew what he was doing.

Stormblade had decided to walk by himself, despite the fact that he was obviously weakening. Thunder had kept to the front of the group during the first part of the walk but after another dizzy spell she had been forced to walk at a slower pace, but still ahead of Stormblade.

Snowcrystal's fur prickled uneasily as they once again reached the edge of a vast underground lake. She noticed Thunder growl and back away warily. Once near the water, Stormblade lay down and closed his eyes-too exhausted to move.

"So do we just have to wait?" Snowcrystal asked Shadeclaw.

The weavile was about to answer when Rosie suddenly shouted, "what is _he _doing here?"

Snowcrystal turned to see Blazefang stop in his tracks, a look of fear plastered across the houndour's face. Snowcrystal had suspected that he would follow them, and it didn't surprise her to see him there.

"Go find your own way out!" Rosie yelled to the houndour. "We're not helping you."

"Actually, Rosie," Nightshade interrupted, "I think it would be wise to help him."

Rosie rounded on the heracross. "_Why_?" she demanded.

Nightshade turned toward her, his yellow eyes serious. "Do you want Cyclone to get his claws on Shadowflare?" At this response, Rosie was silent.

"How are we going to ride some water pokémon under the water?" Snowcrystal asked Shadeclaw, who had been briefly distracted by Rosie's outburst.

"Either Mystic or River can carry you-I know them well, and I'm sure they'd be willing to help. It won't be an easy journey though," Shadeclaw warned, "but it will get you out safe."

"But Shadeclaw…" Wildflame spoke suddenly walking toward him. "I've been thinking…there's no way Stormblade could make it through that. He barely has enough strength as it is. And being carried…will probably be too painful because of his injuries."

A silence hung over the group, and Snowcrystal was sure that if Stormblade were carried, it would only make his injuries worse. "There's not much we can do about that," she told the others regretfully. "He'll have to do it."

She was surprised when Stormblade suddenly spoke up. "No I won't," he told her, and added with bitter regret, "I'm not strong enough. I wouldn't make it. If one of the cave pokémon can guide me to another exit and then to the rest of you, I could meet up with you later."

"But what about the army?" Rosie asked.

"They won't bother me," Stormblade told her. "I can't fight for them, so they won't want anything from me. And if a zubat guides me, he or she could easily hide from them… Look," he added, seeing their doubtful faces. "I'm not some helpless hatchling-I'm strong enough to do_this_."

"You can barely walk," Snowcrystal pointed out, realizing too late that that was probably the wrong thing to say.

"I can travel at my own pace," Stormblade said simply. "Believe me, I don't want to weaken myself more than I already am."

"All right," Snowcrystal told him. "Just…be careful. I'm sure whoever wants to guide you will help you if you need it." She wasn't sure what the pokémon guiding Stormblade would be able to do to help him, but she pushed that thought to the back of her mind. Maybe Stormblade _was_ stronger than he seemed.

Snowcrystal jumped suddenly when a large pokémon's long neck and head burst out of the water, confronting Shadeclaw with curiosity. It was a graceful pokémon, a large serpentine creature covered in pearly scales ranging in color from creamy white to bright red and blue.

"Shadeclaw?" the milotic asked, regarding the travelers with curiosity. "Who are these pokémon?"

"They're travelers, Mystic," Shadeclaw explained. "They need to get out of the cave in secret as quickly as possible. I don't have much time to explain now, but I will certainly explain later. I need you to take these pokémon one by one through the underwater exit...and fast."

Snowcrystal noticed the milotic's eyes drifting toward Thunder and the large water type pokémon sneered slightly, but the scyther didn't seem to notice. The large milotic turned to the group and sighed. "Very well," she told them, "but don't think you're going for a pleasant swim. However, all I ask is that you don't pass out."

At that statement, Rosie and Wildflame exchanged nervous glances. "You'll be fine," Stormblade told them gently. "I'll meet up with you and the others later."

"Thanks, Stormblade," Rosie told him, smiling, though she still looked rather scared.

"So who's going first?" Shadeclaw asked, and after a moment where no one said anything, Redclaw volunteered.

Snowcrystal watched with fascination as Mystic bent down and lifted the arcanine by the scruff of his neck, making him look like a small puppy hanging from its mother's jaws. It looked almost comical. Mystic turned and carried the arcanine over the water, swimming to where the lake met the opposite wall of the cave. Then, while still holding Redclaw in her mouth, the colossal milotic dived under, creating a large splash that soon settled, leaving the water crystal clear and smooth again.

For what seemed like ages, but really couldn't have been more than a few minutes, the group waited in silence. Snowcrystal kept leaning her head against Stormblade's leg, watching the water worriedly.

Then all at once Mystic's graceful head reared out of the water, and she turned to face the rest of the group. Snowcrystal once again felt very small at the sight of the huge milotic towering over all of them.

"He made it safe," she informed the others. "He's recovering now-so who is going to go next?"

Wanting to seem brave in front of the others, Spark volunteered. Like Redclaw, he was picked up and carried under the water. This time, Snowcrystal was less worried, and when Mystic later surfaced and told them that Spark had made it safely as well, Wildflame, wanting to get it over with, went next.

This time, Mystic seemed to take longer, and when she returned, she explained that Wildflame had breathed in some water during the journey, but would soon be all right. Rosie refused to go next, and Nightshade, who had volunteered to go last, suggested that Thunder take the next turn.

At first Thunder had refused, not liking the thought of another pokémon touching her, but the others managed to convince her to let the milotic carry her by the wings, under the promise that she would be allowed to attack the milotic if she purposely tried to drown her. Obviously Mystic had no such intention, but the promise seemed to make Thunder more willing to be carried under the water.

Afterward, Blazefang volunteered, and then Rosie, although with hesitation. Snowcrystal waited for Mystic to return after taking Rosie through the tunnel, knowing that her turn was next.

"Are you scared?" Stormblade asked her, turning to look down at her.

"A little…" Snowcrystal admitted, still staring at the water.

"It'll be all right," Stormblade replied, following her gaze. "The others seemed to have made it through all right. You'll be just fine."

"I…I hope so…" Snowcrystal replied shakily, and looked back up at him. "Are sure you'll be all right traveling alone? I mean, I'm sure Mystic could…"

"There's no way she'd be able to carry me with these injuries," Stormblade replied, almost bitterly. "And I won't be alone-one of the cave pokémon will be willing to guide me. So don't worry. I might take a little while meeting up with you and the others, but I'll be just fine. I promise."

"Are you sure?" Snowcrystal asked him, uncertain.

"Positive."

"Ok…" Snowcrystal said with a sigh, but quickly drove any doubts away from her mind. She was probably worrying too much. He would be fine.

A large splash caused her to look up, and Mystic looked at her. Slowly the growlithe stood up and walked over to the huge milotic-dozens of different thoughts running through her head at the same time. She had no idea what this experience was going to be like.

"Good luck!" Stormblade called to her, trying to smile.

Snowcrystal turned and smiled back at him as Mystic leaned down toward her.

"Remember," the milotic said, "just before we reach the cave wall over there-take a deep breath."

Snowcrystal felt teeth meet in her scruff as her body was lifted off the ground. Mystic lifted her head high above the water, and Snowcrystal was fascinated with how the vast cavern and its glimmering crystals looked like from above. Mystic slowly neared the wall, and once they were close, Snowcrystal took a deep breath and then the milotic plunged into the icy water.

Despite the fact that she was too used to cold to be bothered by it, the speed at which the milotic had dived and was carrying her through the black water came as a huge shock, and she had to fight the urge to instinctively struggle. Feeling like she would need a breath of air soon if she moved too much, Snowcrystal forced her body to relax, and closed her eyes, trying to remain calm and to not use up any of her energy-that would only make her run out of air faster.

As the two of them seemed to glide through the water, Snowcrystal suddenly felt the urge to open her eyes. She did so, realizing with great surprise that she could _see_. While she had expected the underwater world to be completely dark, somewhere far deep down in the water's depths-were large and small specks of glowing light. They covered the entire floor of the tunnel far below, and up ahead, there were even more. She realized that these must be more glowing crystals. Further on these crystals covered the entire floor of the large underwater tunnel Mystic was swimming through, which was narrow but very deep, like some sort of massive abyss.

Starting to feel dizzy, Snowcrystal focused her gaze on the way ahead, still too fascinated by the glowing crystals far down below to close her eyes. That was when she noticed it.

Up ahead, some of the lights seemed to be flickering out, in large groups, yet a moment later those crystals would be bright again, and others would go dark. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't the crystals' light going out, it was something huge swimming above the crystals like a dark shadow.

The growlithe's eyes widened, and just when she began to wonder if it was another milotic, Mystic swerved violently to the right, almost causing Snowcrystal to gasp in shock. Mystic turned again and then swam in a straight direction, but was clearly increasing speed, when before that hadn't seemed possible. Snowcrystal fearfully wondered what was wrong-she had lost sight of the dark thing, and a moment later several things happened at once.

Snowcrystal heard a horrible sound-like some sort of deranged roar distorted by the water, and Mystic's whole body violently shuddered, as if something had crashed into her. And at the same instant, the milotic let go of Snowcrystal.

Though she made no sound, the weakening growlithe was screaming in her mind. Without thinking, she lashed out with all four paws, trying to swim back to Mystic. She quickly realized she was hopelessly wasting energy, growing weaker, and she held still, hoping that the milotic would be able to help her. She looked up, and her eyes met one of the eeriest sights she had ever seen. Mystic was entangled with a massive gyarados, which was trying to sink its teeth into her side.

She was distracted from the sight of the two thrashing serpents when she became aware that she was sinking, slowly but surely toward the crystals below. There was a stabbing pain in her chest, steadily growing worse.

She could not hold her breath much longer.

No longer could she tell where Mystic or the gyarados were. She could hear them, but they sounded far away. Even the light of the crystals had dimmed. Everything around her was fading. The pain was growing worse. And then she could stand it no more, and inhaled.

Water instantly filled her mouth and throat, choking her and making her thrash about in shock as icy needles of pain shot through her chest and head. In a panic she thrashed her paws, not knowing if the direction she was swimming was up or down. Terror filled her mind-she was a fire type, and the prospect of drowning suddenly seemed all the more frightening; she felt her body growing quickly weaker, feeling as if the water were extinguishing her very life. The pain intensified for a few more agonizing moments, then it started to dull, and at the same time, so did everything around her-the sounds, the sights, the fear…then it all went black.

* * *

Mystic had not expected this gyarados to be here. He was a cave dweller, a strange gyarados who wanted nothing to do with the outside-and in turn sought to protect the cave from intruders. Though he did not usually come to this part of the cave, she did not think he could have mistaken her for an intruder, and she wondered if he'd caught the scent of all the strange pokémon she had been carrying through the tunnel, and misunderstood her intentions-thinking that she was using the tunnel to bring pokémon to and from the cave.

Luckily, in a matter of seconds, Mystic had managed to twist free of the large gyarados, afterwards sending him flying backwards into the wall with a twister attack. Rushing forward, she slammed her tail into the side of his head, momentarily stunning him.

"Leave!" she cried, her harmonious voice sounding clearly even through the water. "I am helping them exit the cave!" Without waiting for a response she turned and swam in wide circles going deeper into the dark water, searching for the white growlithe who had been swallowed up by the cold blackness. Yet even with the light of the crystals from below, the water was too dark for her to see the small pokémon. It barely registered to her that the gyarados was no longer trying to attack-she was too frantic in her search. Quickly she swam in wider and wider circles, looking left and right for any sign of the small pokémon.

Then she saw a sign. Somewhere down below, just a tiny pinprick of light, was a small, glowing red dot-the growlithe's crystal. Mystic rushed forward in a headlong dive toward the light, feeling the water grow colder the deeper she submerged. Her eyes were focused on the small dot of light as if she feared she would loose sight of it if she looked away. Time seemed to stand still as the distance between herself and the light seemed to shrink ever so slowly…

Then she could see the growlithe. Swimming faster, she caught up to the quickly sinking pokémon. Gripping Snowcrystal's scruff again, the milotic swam upwards, as fast as she was able to, hoping the tiny bundle she held in her mouth was still alive. Then, the water began turning from black to deep blue. There was light ahead-the calm river which flowed out of the cave was dappled with sunlight further ahead. Mystic swam faster, and the surface seemed to rush to meet her.

Mystic felt both joy and relief as her head broke through the surface and into open air. All around her, lush vegetation and the wide, calm river gave her a feeling of relief. But she knew there couldn't be relief quite yet. Racing over to the bank, the milotic quickly set the small puppy onto the sand.

Snowcrystal lay unmoving.

"Snowcrystal!" Wildflame shouted from somewhere nearby, racing over to her. The houndoom still looked shaky and weak, but quite healthy compared to the growlithe lying on the shore. Some of the others got up and approached her, while others hung back, watching.

Redclaw gently pressed his muzzle to Snowcrystal's side. The growlithe made no movement at first, but then stirred weakly, her eyes flickering open a second before closing again. Redclaw nudged her once more, seeing the small growlithe begin to move again.

"I'm going to go back for the last member of your group," Mystic told them, seeing that Snowcrystal had started to recover and was beginning to cough up some of the water as Wildflame and Redclaw sat next to her, helping her in any way they could. "After that, I must leave-I don't like swimming outside of the cave in plain sight and I still have to look after River." With that, she turned and dove back into the water, vanishing into the dark hole deep below the water's surface which led into the cave.

Snowcrystal felt her senses slowly returning to her, and she paused to look around, her eyes widening in shock when she saw the way they had come from. A massive wall of stone reared up to great heights where the river began, flanked on either side by the massive cliffs covered in lush foliage that formed both walls of the canyon. Below the wall of stone, somewhere beneath the water, was the entrance to the cave. She turned to look at the canyon that stretched far into the distance, and up ahead she could see a small area where the sides of the cliffs were more like gently sloping hills, which led to a more flat area covered in trees and rocks halfway up the side of the canyon wall.

"There…" she whispered, lifting her head weakly. "That seems like the easiest way to travel along these cliffs…" she tried to get up and stumbled, and Redclaw stopped her fall with his foreleg.

"You need to rest for now," the arcanine told her. "We will leave once Nightshade arrives and you have recovered."

"I'm fine…" Snowcrystal whispered uncertainly, pulling away from him. However a few seconds later she felt a wave of dizziness and lay back down. Though she felt terribly weak, she considered herself lucky that Mystic had found a way to rescue her quickly and bring her to the surface.

After a short time, the milotic was back with Nightshade, who seemed to have fared far better than most of the others during the journey. Mystic informed them that nothing had gone wrong, and just when Snowcrystal was about to ask the gyarados, she decided against it. Mystic would probably be able to reason with him later, considering that she had been a good enough fighter to keep him at bay long enough to rescue her, and mentioning the gyarados might cause the others unnecessary worry.

"Well, now that you're here…you better get going," Mystic warned. "That army won't know there's an exit over here, so flying pokémon might not be headed this way, but still…be careful."

"We will," Wildflame told her, and the milotic, looking uneasy about being in the open, vanished back underwater.

"We're going to rest here for a while before we move on," Redclaw told Nightshade. "Some of us need to rest."

No one argued with the suggestion, and for a while the pokémon lay down in peace, though Redclaw kept glancing skyward quite often. Blazefang, who was lying away from the main group beneath the shelter of a few trees, shared the arcanine's worry, though he did nothing to show it.

Once everyone had recovered enough, they set out at a slow pace up the easy-to-climb slope, heading to the flat ridge of stone and earth along the cliffs Snowcrystal had pointed out. Blazefang trailed behind the group, at a loss for what else to do.

Nightshade and Redclaw found themselves acting as the leaders for the group, and once under the shelter of the trees along the wide ridge halfway up the cliffs, they allowed the group to stop and rest, as Stormblade still needed to catch up.

"Do you think Stormblade will make it here ok?" Snowcrystal asked Redclaw while everyone was either resting or hunting.

"We may have to wait a while, but we'll travel slow and take plenty of breaks," Redclaw replied. "I don't want to stay in one place too long, but I do know it'll be hard for Stormblade to catch up." He sighed. "I really don't know if he should have offered to make that journey alone."

"At least he won't be completely alone," Snowcrystal replied. "And he knows that he needs to rest often…he told me he'd be fine…I'm just a little worried."

"Well, Cyclone's army won't see any use for a badly injured pokémon," Redclaw replied. "As for us, well…we're going to have to be careful for a while, especially since there could be flying pokémon around."

Snowcrystal stood up and walked over to the edge of the steep cliff leading down to the river. "I know…but this place looks so peaceful…and it seems like there will be plenty of food. It really feels safe here."

"Compared to what we've been through, it probably is safe," Redclaw replied, walking over to her. "We'll be able to travel slower, sleep longer, and rest more often. But we still have to be careful, and keep looking to the skies…"

Snowcrystal paused to glance upward, but all she saw were a few pidgey flying by to land beside a nest in a tree further down below. Still, the thought that a pokémon from Cyclone's army could soar overhead and recognize Blazefang made her afraid. If they saw any suspicious pokémon, Blazefang would have to instantly hide-for the sake of everyone. She nodded nervously, repeating Redclaw's words in a whisper to herself.

"_Keep looking to the skies…"_

* * *

Stormblade had been shown the way to the nearest cave exit by a crobat who had volunteered to lead him after Shadeclaw had explained the situation to a group of the cave pokémon. By now, the scyther was so severely weakened by pain and hunger that it was sheer willpower alone that kept him going. The crobat, Echosong, watched him with concern as he stumbled yet again, leaning heavily on the wall of the cave to keep himself from falling.

"I think you should rest again," she advised him.

"No…" Stormblade replied shakily. "Let's keep going."

Echosong sighed. "All right…it's not far now."

Silently the two pokémon traveled through a narrow tunnel which led upwards, until finally, light shone up ahead.

"Careful Stormblade," Echosong warned him. "Those strange pokémon are probably lurking around out there. I'll fly out quickly, you just make it past those pokémon-like you said they'll probably just ignore you, and I'll meet up with you once you're out of their sight. All right?"

"All right," Stormblade replied, nodding shakily.

Echosong suddenly zoomed toward the cave opening, vanishing into the brightness. Stormblade waited a few moments before starting to follow her, slowly but surely nearing the light.

When he stumbled out into the brightness, the scent of strange pokémon was everywhere, but that didn't surprise him. However, the moment he stepped out of the cave, he was momentarily blinded by the strong sunlight. Closing his eyes in surprise, he started to hobble forward. He only got a few paces before something roughly grabbed him around the neck, digging its claws into the burn marks left by the metal collar Team Rocket had put around his neck back at the old building.

"Well who's this?" a voice sneered. "Is he a friend of yours?" By this time, Stormblade's eyes had adjusted to the light long enough to see that the pokémon holding him was a very large tyranitar.

"Eh, put 'im down," muttered another pokémon, an ursaring. "He'll be carrion in a few days."

"Fine," the tyranitar muttered grudgingly, throwing the scyther roughly to the ground.

Stormblade lifted his head and slowly got to his feet. There were three pokémon there-the tyranitar, and ursaring and a scyther-the same scyther he had seen before in the cave. His eyes widened in shock as he noticed that the scyther was holding Echosong in her jaws. The crobat was dead, a deep slash across her body.

The ursaring followed Stormblade's gaze and looked at the scyther. "_That_ one looked healthy though!" he remarked.

"So?" she muttered, dropping the crobat to the ground. "There's barely enough food to go around as it is. Cyclone will never know!"

Stormblade froze-he recognized her voice, and now that his eyes had completely adjusted to the light and he could see her clearly, he realized it wasn't just her voice he recognized-he knew this scyther.

"What are you staring at?" the scyther spat, glaring at Stormblade. It became obvious to him that she didn't recognize him, even though he remembered that she had heard someone call him by his name in the cave.

"Silverbreeze?" Stormblade asked slowly. "What…are you doing…away from the oth-"

Before he could register what had happened, the other scyther had slammed the dull side of her blade so hard into the side of his head that it knocked him over. "None of your business!" she spat. "And how do you know my name? Who are you?" Her eyes narrowed for a moment, and she seemed to recall something. "Wait…back in the cave…one of those other pokémon called you Stormblade. Is that your_real_ name?"

Confused, Stormblade wondered why she would ask something like that-surely she would know that Stormblade was his real name. He quickly had to remind himself that with these injuries, he was completely unrecognizable. He decided not to answer.

However, after Silverbreeze took a closer look at him, she confirmed the answer for herself. Laughing, she stepped back to the others. "So this is what's become of you?" she cried. "You're certainly not so high and mighty now!"

"Silverbreeze…" the tyranitar began. "What other pokémon did you see in the cave? Was this scyther with the houndour?"

Silverbreeze stopped, turning back to Stormblade. "I couldn't see the houndour in the cave," she began, smiling slightly. "But you're right-they all went in as a big group. He was one of them."

The tyranitar walked up to the cringing Stormblade and lifted him roughly by one of his wings. "Well then, you can tell us where the houndour is, can't you?"

Stormblade hesitated-he didn't know the exact location of Blazefang, but even if he had known, giving away his location would also be putting his friends in danger, as Blazefang had been following him. "I don't know!" he growled.

"Uh-huh. Sure you don't," the tyranitar growled. "You were with them-someone was leading you out of the cave-obviously they have the means to find their way out but we haven't found them! Where are they? Where are they planning to escape?" he bellowed loudly, shaking the scyther roughly.

When Stormblade didn't answer, the ursaring sighed. "This isn't working," he muttered, "Bring him to Cyclone-he'll deal with him…and Cyclone will probably be pleased with us too. And you know what that means-a reward!"

"He's right," Silverbreeze agreed. "Solus has ways of making pokémon talk. You stay here," she told the ursaring. "Guard the cave entrance. We'll tell Cyclone you helped too. Now let's go!" She glanced at the tyranitar who had grabbed Stormblade's arm, above the blade, and began to drag him over to her as she led the way back to the army's main camp.


	36. Into the Canyon

The Path of Destiny

**Chapter 36-Into the Canyon**

Cyclone had always hated humans.

Sure, he had once had a trainer for a period of time, but he had put up with it because the trainer could provide him with things he needed which he could not get anywhere else.

An evolution stone, to name one such thing.

Cyclone felt no guilt at abandoning his previous master in the desert with the rest of his pokémon. Humans as a species were cruel, and the fact that his trainer was a nice person did not change the fact that humans took pokémon away from their homes and thought nothing of it.

Apart from his trainer, Cyclone had not met any particularly nice humans. He had been born in a city where eevee had become incredibly common through breeding. As a result, many eevee, namely males, were left unwanted.

Cyclone grew up on the streets of the city, along with his parents who had been thrown out of their humans' home because they had become too old to breed. He was their last child, yet no one had purchased him simply because he looked small and week for an eevee his age, and many of the humans wanted females.

Though he lived a meager existence on the filthy streets of a crowded city, life was not bad to him because he knew no different. His parents had never been given the chance to evolve, but although they were still only eevee they did their best to protect him. They strived to make his hard life happy, and despite living in such awful conditions, both of his parents discovered a new joy at finally being able to raise one of their pups themselves instead of having him taken away by the humans at a very young age.

At this stage of life Cyclone felt that everything was one big adventure, and his parents helped him see it that way. Whether they were digging through garbage for scraps or finding somewhere to shelter from the rain, Cyclone's mother and father always made it into a game for him. At many times it kept him calm even in the worst of situations. He was about as happy as a nameless stray eevee in the midst of a massive crowded city could be.

One day when Cyclone and his parents were walking back to one of the many different places on the streets they called 'home', the three eevee were unexpectedly chased by a growlithe and in their panic, veered off into another street. It wasn't long before the growlithe stopped chasing them, but the eevee were exhausted. Cyclone had complained about it being cold, so they started to head back. Cyclone hadn't recognized anything around him, and it had been getting dark. He had been scared.

Cyclone's father then suddenly let out a warning cry, and the three eevee bolted as a couple of teenage humans strode into view. The first human had spotted the eevee and ran forward, grabbing the tail of Cyclone's father as he darted by. Frightened, the young eevee's mother had told him to hide as she rushed to confront the humans holding her mate.

It was a futile effort-both of the humans had pokémon and easily defeated the small eevee. Though Cyclone had been young, he remembered distinctly from the humans' words that both of them considered the now common eevee species 'unwanted vermin' and were tired of seeing endless amounts of eevee being adopted into trainers' teams or being left to run freely through the city. Therefore, they decided to let their pokémon have a little fun with the 'common vermin'.

The two trainers then sent out their pokémon, ordering them to attack the two older eevee, and from his hiding place, Cyclone watched as his parents were tortured and killed before his very eyes.

A little less than a day later, Cyclone was found by a trainer-a young boy who brought him to his house and cared for him. Cyclone hated and feared the human, but it was thanks to him that he survived. Having nowhere else to go and knowing that a trainer was his ticket away from the awful city where he had been raised, Cyclone reluctantly decided to join him.

In the years he stayed with his trainer, Cyclone made many attempts to escape after being given one of the things he wanted-evolution. All of these attempts failed and the boy's other pokémon tried to convince him to stay, and Cyclone agreed, though in his mind, he knew it would only just be until he got stronger.

Secretly, he taught himself to hunt, as he knew that one day he would no longer rely on humans for food. He hated the silly nickname given to him by his trainer, and began to call himself Cyclone, in honor of his evolution.

Throughout the years Cyclone had seen pokémon being pushed past their limits in battle, beaten, or even accidentally killed during a match. He was blind to the examples of kind trainers around him-he did not believe that humans could be kind. His trainer, he believed, was only using him to win battles and earn money.

Cyclone's hatred of humans increased when one day he witnessed sections of a forest being cut down, and the obvious homes of pokémon destroyed. He was further enraged when the surviving pokémon were captured and brought back to the city.

His trainer hadn't done anything to stop these humans.

It was only when they had gotten lost in a desert that Cyclone finally abandoned his trainer and the other pokémon, leaving them without water. He had needed it for himself more.

After a long while of walking, he realized that he was lost. Soon he had collapsed, and that was when he had found the green stone. Out of curiosity and fascination, he had reached forward and touched it. The stone sent violent energy surging throughout his body. The energy was so raw and powerful that he had passed out from the shock.

When he had awoken, he had felt a new life flowing through his veins. No longer did he feel tired or weak, and the energy lasted him long enough to find his way out of the desert. At some point during this time, he had remembered a story his trainer had once told the pokémon, and realized with fascination what this could be. _A Forbidden Attack._

The story had been vague, and his trainer had only been interested in describing each of the attacks and what they did. Cyclone had heard a voice whisper to him upon first touching the stone, and he had tried his attack out. The description in the story had matched almost perfectly. _Acidstorm_ was his.

From then on, he began formulating a plan, which led him to quickly seek out someone knowledgeable about the legend of the Forbidden Attacks. He had soon found such a pokémon.

Now, with a vast army at his side, Cyclone sat atop a grassy hill, his sleek, short fur wet after a morning of hunting. He was waiting for any reports of the whereabouts of the houndour Blazefang, who possessed Shadowflare but had been unwilling to join the army. The vaporeon had decided that the attack needed to be taken by force.

Blazefang needed to die.

As Cyclone sat on the cool, damp grass, he picked up the sound of some of his followers approaching. He stood up and walked over to them, hoping for news of the houndour.

Instead, the tyranitar he had appointed to watch one of the cave's exits threw a wounded scyther at his feet. Cyclone's eyes widened the tiniest fraction in what one might expect to be shock. The scyther's back and arms had been burned horribly, leaving flesh and muscle exposed in some places. The vaporeon stood staring, but he hid his disgust well, retaining his usual calm and emotionless expression.

"Why have you brought this scyther here?" he asked, his voice betraying the faintest hint of annoyance. "Scyther aren't prey, and this one is no use to us as a fighter. Unless he has a good reason to be here, throw him into the canyon and tell me what you've found by the cave."

"Oh he has a good reason to be here all right!" the female scyther who Cyclone already greatly trusted, and who was called Silverbreeze, told him with a smile on her face. "He was part of the group that the houndour went with into the cave. A crobat led him out of the cave so we know that the cave pokémon are helping them. He ought to know where the others, and Blazefang, have gone."

"Hm…well then, good job," Cyclone complimented, the faintest hint of a smile crossing his face. "But let me guess…he wouldn't tell you anything so you brought him here?"

"Yes, Cyclone," Silverbreeze replied respectfully.

"Oh, but you'll soon get him to talk, right?" the tyranitar asked, giving the motionless scyther a small kick. Stormblade groaned and tried to move away.

Cyclone regarded Stormblade as if he was some particularly dirty piece of filth that disgusted him and which he had no intention of touching or getting closer to. The vaporeon turned to Silverbreeze. "Get Solus," he ordered. "And you," he added to the tyranitar, "bring anyone from the army who isn't on duty here as well."

Not wanting to question him, Silverbreeze and the tyranitar ran off.

* * *

Cyclone watched as the army gathered below the hill. He turned toward Solus, who was grinning widely.

"Hey Cyclone," the espeon asked, his eyes narrowing to mere slits. "Do you really think this scyther knows where Blazefang is?"

"It's possible," Cyclone replied calmly. "Now remember, do whatever you want, just don't _kill_ him. I'm going to have a word with the army." The vaporeon turned and walked to the hill, while the espeon darted excitedly beside him.

Stormblade could barely register what had happened, but at some point, he had been knocked out and dragged to the very top of the hill after coming face to face with the army's leader, Cyclone. Now he lay in the wet grass beneath the slowly setting sun, some sort of tough vines tied around his arms just below the base of the scythes, and around his snout. He assumed from Cyclone and Solus's actions that he was about to be made an example of. He had made up his mind to ignore his fear and remain defiant. After all, despite the fact that the espeon had tried to read his mind, Cyclone was still going to have him tortured, and would have even if Solus's attempt had been successful-he had gathered the army there for a reason.

Stormblade did not know why Solus's mind reading attempt did not work. From what he had heard from Cyclone himself, the espeon had perfected his mind reading ability to the point where he could read the minds of unevolved dark types, although he still couldn't hurt them with actual attacks. However, when Solus had tried it on Stormblade, it hadn't worked. Solus had discovered some of Stormblade's other memories-being locked out in the snow by Justin, teaching Spark how to hunt, lying on a bed in the pokémon center, his talk with Thunder…but no matter how deep into his mind the espeon had delved, he could not see any of the memories regarding Blazefang. Stormblade was not sure why this was so-he hadn't been strong enough to resist it in any way, but he had deeply frustrated Solus and it had been easy to see that the former Rocket espeon had been both humiliated and furious. Now that his interrogation was about to start however, Solus seemed to be in a much better mood. Solus had known that Stormblade was the scyther Blazefang had attacked-he had seen it in Blazefang's memory. Stormblade had heard him telling Cyclone about it.

The scyther lay miserably on the ground as Cyclone called out to the pokémon assembled below, his words magnified into the minds of every pokémon present by Solus's psychic abilities.

"Now I know you're wondering why I told you to come here," Cyclone began, his calm, level voice intensifying within Stormblade's own head, "I know that some of you have witnessed what happens to traitors…but now I will show you all what happens to those who refuse to aid us in our quest to stop the humans." He turned to Solus and nodded.

The espeon padded lightly over to Stormblade, removing the vine around his mouth by snapping it with his teeth. "Let's hope for your sake that you're one of the smart ones…the ones who say what Cyclone wants to know right from the start," he muttered.

Stormblade ignored him. He knew that no matter what he did, Cyclone had brought the army here to see Solus torture someone, and that wasn't going to change.

The espeon backed up, turning to look at Cyclone and the two pokémon who had come to stand by his side-the tyranitar and the scyther Silverbreeze. Solus smiled, revealing pointed fangs. "Well then, let's begin."

Stormblade jerked back as some sort of very intense white hot, pulsating pain filled his head, and he thrashed in agony, gouging the grass and earth with his scythes as he did so. It felt as if some powerful fire type was shoving long, red-hot claws deep into his head. As he struggled on the ground, he caught a fleeting glimpse of Solus standing rigid as if in deep concentration-his eyes a fiercely glowing light blue.

All at once the pain stopped. Stormblade gasped for breath, looking up as Solus approached him. "So," the espeon stated casually, his eyes returning to their normal black. "Where is that houndour?"

_Lie…_Stormblade thought frantically to himself, trying to think of something convincing. A wave of agonizing pain rushed through his head again, though this time it was gone almost as soon as it had started.

"No, lying wouldn't be a good idea," the espeon snarled. "Tell us the truth."

Stormblade hesitated, the memory of the others waiting at the side of the underground lake coming involuntarily to the front of his mind. Solus made no move or response other than a frustrated growl-he couldn't read the memory.

"I know I can't read it!" Solus shrieked, his claws digging into the ground in rage. "But I know that you know it! Where is he?"

Several of the pokémon watching below exchanged confused glances with each other, and shifting nervously, hoping the scyther would tell Solus. Some wanted the houndour to be part of the army as much as Cyclone did, and others simply didn't want to watch this anymore.

"I can tell what you're thinking," Solus told Stormblade angrily. "You're afraid to tell because you don't want your friends in danger, don't want Cyclone to have the attack…well let me tell you…YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!"

Stormblade shrieked in agony as the pain returned, twice as intense. "TELL US!" Solus roared, but the scyther could barely hear him over the pain that filled his head and mind, forcing away all other thoughts. He couldn't hear Solus anymore. In fact, he could no longer tell if he was still screaming, or if he was really only screaming in his mind. Nothing he did lessened or worsened the agony-it was just one steady stream of constant pain.

Once again the pain suddenly stopped, and Stormblade was left lying shivering on the ground. Through his dazed vision the scyther could see Solus's cat-like form approaching him.

"Well?" the espeon asked, looking at him through blazing blue eyes.

Stormblade did not move. No matter what happened to him, he simply couldn't bring himself to put his friends in danger. And if he said nothing, there was no way these pokémon could find out where the others were.

The corners of Solus's mouth twisted into an almost insane grin. "No one being tortured ever remains heroic and noble for long," the espeon smirked, and Stormblade felt a strange sensation, and realized that he was being slowly lifted into the air by some sort of strange blue glow originating from Solus's psychic attack.

Stormblade was completely unable to move, save for his eyes which darted from side to side in both horror and fear. He noticed that he was being moved through the air toward a large boulder nearby.

Solus turned his head toward the side slightly, and Stormblade was suddenly slammed against the side of the boulder. Solus moved his head again and Stormblade moved away from it in the air, only to be sent crashing against it again. This time the espeon tilted his head slightly downward, watching as Stormblade, who had his back against the rock, was slowly dragged down its rough surface through the air. The scyther could make no sound, but Solus was sure that if he could, he might find that having his burn wounds ripped open by jagged rock enough of an incentive to give him the information he wanted. Solus released Stormblade from the psychic attack, allowing him to fall roughly to the ground. The rock beside him was smeared with blood.

Some of the watching pokémon either looked away or looked down at the grass as Solus walked over to the cringing scyther. Stormblade could feel a lot of blood running down his back, and he lay gritting his teeth together, trying not to make any sound.

"Are you ready to give us the answer?" Solus asked him.

"Yes…" Stormblade gasped. "They escaped through the tunnel they first went in through…got past the guards…they're headed-"

"YOU'RE _LYING_!" Solus snarled.

Stormblade felt himself lifting back up into the air only to be slammed back into the ground, but this time he was so dazed from the pain of the Shadowflare wounds that he hardly felt it. Solus's psychic energy lifted him upright again, so that Stormblade was forced to stare into the espeon's glowing eyes. Solus inclined his head slightly to the right, and Stormblade heard a snapping, tearing sound as one of his wings was bent almost completely backwards and then twisted by the psychic energy holding him in the air. A moment later he was sent crashing against the rock, and the psychic glow around him faded. Painfully the scyther tried to get to his feet, only to be knocked down by an iron tail attack from Solus.

"Where is he?" the espeon hissed, his glowing aqua eyes narrowing to brightly blazing slits.

Stormblade didn't respond, but closed his eyes and curled up on the ground, much to Solus's annoyance.

The espeon's eyes glowed brighter, almost white, but this time Stormblade felt no pain. Instead, images of his friends-his current traveling companions as well as friends in his past, flashed through his mind, each of them maimed horribly and dying in their own blood.

"You want this to happen to your friends when we find 'em?" Solus asked him, fixing his insane-looking gaze on the scyther. "Because we can arrange that!"

The images in his mind vanished to give way to searing agony once again. It was at this point that Stormblade realized he had reached his limit. He found it nearly impossible to talk and endure the pain at the same time, but he finally managed to force the words out. "They…they whe-were at lake-"

The pain stopped, and Solus's glowing eyes returned to their usual violet color. "Yes…?" he asked, in a mockingly sweet voice.

"An underground lake," Stormblade gasped, "the c-cave poke…said…he said…water p-pokémon…can swim underneath…into a canyon…the exit…h…hidden underwater…"

Cyclone calmly approached Solus, taking care not to step on any of the patches of grass that were flecked with blood. "Of course…" he whispered. "The canyon. I'll admit I never would have thought of looking for a cave entrance in that area. Well, if that's where they're headed or have escaped to, that is where we'll go. Gather everyone who's waiting by the cave entrances and bring them here!" Cyclone ordered some of the pokémon standing nearest to him, and they nodded and walked off.

Silverbreeze, who had been standing near Cyclone the whole time, now looked shocked at the state Stormblade was in. Solus walked over to the motionless scyther, using his psychic powers to send another wave of pain shooting through his body. Stormblade cried out and then lay still. "Now I want to know something…" the espeon hissed dangerously as he approached Stormblade, knowing that most of the army would be preparing to leave now and were no longer forced to stay here. "How were you able to keep that secret _hidden…from…me_!" His last three words were a dangerous snarl, and the scyther at his feet screamed again.

Silverbreeze glanced sideways at Cyclone, who sat perfectly still, almost as if he were a vaporeon made of stone, facing Solus as the eevee evolution continued to torment the helpless scyther and seeming to pay no attention to the pokémon's screams.

"Cyclone?" the female scyther asked slowly, but the vaporeon seemed lost deep in thought, his eyes fixed on the scene before him and the tortured scyther. Silverbreeze shuddered-as much as she didn't like having Stormblade around, she did not like witnessing pure torture. "Cyclone…" Silverbreeze continued. "You've got the answer you want-there's no need for this! Tell Solus to stop!"

Cyclone stood up in one fluid motion, staring at the scene once more before turning sharply around and heading in the opposite direction, Stormblade's screams echoing in his ears. The vaporeon's mouth twisted into a bitter snarl, as he replied to Silverbreeze in nothing more than a dark whisper.

"_Why should I?"_

* * *

By nightfall, Snowcrystal and her friends had stopped to rest. They had not traveled far, and had stopped early so as to get a lot of rest for the journey ahead. Snowcrystal curled up against Redclaw's fluffy tail, looking at the arcanine with her blue eyes. "Do you think we'll find Articuno soon?" she asked.

"Maybe so," Redclaw told her calmly. "I'm sure that when we do find him, he will be more than willing to help you and your clan."

Snowcrystal smiled and lay down, feeling exhausted. It was so nice to be able to relax after all that had happened. And when Stormblade caught up, it would be easier for him too.

As the others were getting ready to sleep, Wildflame snuck away from the group, following Blazefang's scent. She found the houndour easily. Blazefang was curled up beneath a clump of ferns, not noticing her presence. He looked small and afraid-he was no longer the ruthless leader he had been becoming before. "Blazefang…" Wildflame whispered, and the houndour sat up suddenly, startled.

"Uh…what is it?" he said quickly, glancing to see if the others were around.

Wildflame sighed. "What are we going to do now?" she asked. "We have no idea where-"

"Boneclaw and the rest of the pack joined Cyclone," Blazefang interrupted. "I think he must have promised them help either finding Articuno or driving the growlithe away…I'm not sure. I don't know what to do."

"Maybe Articuno will be strong enough to drive that army away," Wildflame whispered back. "After all, he is a legendary. We can still help the clan, Blazefang. We just need to stay with this group and try to-"

"Articuno can't help us!" Blazefang growled suddenly, and Wildflame was taken aback.

"Why…why not?" she asked.

"He just can't!" Blazefang growled, and Wildflame could tell that he didn't want to say more on the matter.

"We don't know if he can stop them for sure," Wildflame went on, still very confused by Blazefang's reaction. "But for now we must stay with the others if we're going to make it through all this. If you want…I can try to convince them to…to really let you into their group."

"They'd never trust me," Blazefang muttered bitterly.

"We won't get anywhere if we don't work together," Wildflame replied. "Maybe we ought to help the growlithe-we can work something out between both the clans! Articuno doesn't need to take sides."

Blazefang sighed. "I suppose working something out would be best…but we can't rely on Articuno…" he replied.

"I know we don't know where he is," Wildflame said quietly, thinking that she knew why he was doubting. "But we can at least try…Articuno can make it so that both clans have enough territory and prey." She paused, but Blazefang did not respond. "Look, everyone in this group all have two things in common. One, they want peace in one way or another, and two, they don't want the Forbidden Attacks to fall into Cyclone's paws. Working together is our best option. I can try to convince them to give you another chance."

Blazefang merely turned away from her, his eyes staring sightlessly ahead. "I don't know…" he whispered slowly.

Wildflame could tell that he wanted to be left alone. Sighing, she turned and headed back to the others. "Ok…you can decide…but I'll make sure that none of them try to bother you, especially that jolteon," she added with a smile as she padded slowly away, leaving Blazefang to his own thoughts.

* * *

Morning sun shone brightly through the leafy canopy as Snowcrystal awoke and stood up, stretching her forepaws and then glancing around sleepily. The sunlight shone through semi-transparent leaves, bathing everything around her in warm green light. This was certainly a peaceful place.

Seeing that the others were not yet awake, Snowcrystal walked to the edge of the cliff, looking down at the river below which sparkled in the sunlight. The way down looked steep in this area-much steeper than it had been before, but the natural stone pathway wound through the canyon for quite some way ahead-she couldn't see where it ended. Behind her, the cliffs reared up high into the sky, grasses and flowers swaying gently in the breeze from small ledges and niches in the rock.

After a few moments of gazing at the canyon's beauty, some footsteps sounding closer to her made her turn around, noticing Nightshade.

"This place seems a lot more hospitable than most of the other areas we've journeyed through, doesn't it?" the heracross asked her.

Snowcrystal nodded. "Do you think we should rest here for the rest of the day to wait for Stormblade?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Nightshade replied. "I think we should at least get to a place where we could all adequately hide if we were spotted by one of Cyclone's followers before we decide to stop in one place. But once we do, I could always go back to search for Stormblade and help him the rest of the way here-I can fly after all."

"But that's dangerous!" Snowcrystal told him. "What if they see you?"

"Regardless of any type disadvantages I'm sure I could handle a flying pokémon or two," Nightshade said calmly. "It would be a good idea to travel until we find such a place today, then I can go back and help Stormblade."

"All right," Snowcrystal said smiling. She was glad to see that Nightshade was confident, yet at the same time knew what he was doing. And regardless of the danger Nightshade could face, Stormblade was probably struggling and needed help. And after all, a flying type from Cyclone's army might not want to focus on attacking Nightshade when they were looking for Blazefang.

"We'll leave as soon as the others wake up," Nightshade told her. "You should rest now."

"Okay," Snowcrystal replied, nodding.

* * *

It was still morning by the time the group had begun traveling. For a while, their path had gotten steadily rockier, and there were places where they had to clamber over rough boulders or climb a little ways up or down the cliffs to stay on the wide ledge path. Spark and Rosie had difficulty climbing some of the rocks and had to receive help from the others. Snowcrystal and Nightshade were always ahead; Snowcrystal was used to climbing rocks and Nightshade possessed wings.

"Can you slow down?" Rosie called from down below as Snowcrystal reached the top of a particularly difficult to climb rock pile. "Not all of us have four good legs you know!"

While the others continued to struggle to climb, Thunder leaned against the rocks at the very bottom, taking deep gasping breaths as she closed her eyes and tried to fight the dizziness that was threatening to make her collapse. Her whole body was weak and she couldn't stop shaking, but she refused to stop moving for long lest she draw attention to herself from the others. Taking another rasping breath, she stepped shakily away from the rocks for a moment and then began to climb.

Nightshade was completely aware of Thunder's situation, but he said nothing and acted as if he didn't notice-the last thing Thunder needed was more anger and stress, which she would certainly get if she knew that someone was worried about her. All the same, he allowed the group to take breaks often, claiming that everyone needed to rest, and Thunder never made any objections like she had on a previous occasion where Redclaw had suggested they stop to let _her_ rest.

It was during one of these resting times that Snowcrystal decided to go ahead. She walked a little further and soon noticed with dismay that they would all have to climb up the rocks making up the side of the cliff face that stretched far above them for a while in order to carry on. When she came back and reported the news, the only pokémon eager to keep going were Wildflame and Nightshade.

Spark and Rosie felt discouraged, and Blazefang, who was still exhausted, muttered something angrily under his breath from where he sat a good distance away from the others. Yet despite this, they soon agreed to keep going, for everyone was looking forward to better shelter and a chance to rest.

The climb was tougher than any of them had expected-thick foliage often blocked their path and made the going difficult, and it was hard to see how much further they had to go because the trees blocked their view of the grassy ledge they had been traveling on before and the river below. Wildflame, Nightshade, and Redclaw often had to help Spark or Rosie, and a few times Nightshade even risked asking Thunder if she needed help, but she rejected all of his offers.

"It can't be far now," Snowcrystal called to the others from up ahead. "I can see where the foliage thins out further on. We'll be able to see where we can climb back down to the path!"

"Let's hope so," Spark muttered irritably as he limped after Snowcrystal who was walking further ahead, hoping to see how much further they had to go.

The growlithe walked further ahead, quickly reaching the area where there were no trees around her to block her view and where she could see the canyon below.

She was met by a very strange and somehow mysterious sight. Directly below her, there was a place where the smoothly flowing river formed a large round pool right beside the tall cliffs. There the water was still, yet startlingly crystal clear. What intrigued Snowcrystal most was that in the center of the pool a large misshapen chunk of gray rock reached from the depths of the water to a little bit above the surface, and placed on the rock were several small statues of pokémon.

Most of the statues couldn't have been taller than Snowcrystal's foreleg, but there were about thirty all together, spread out over the surface of the rock, looking peaceful and undisturbed. They were of various pokémon; Snowcrystal spotted a remoraid, a vaporeon, a clefable, a rapidash, a mightyena, and several others. For a moment her gaze wandered away from the rock and the small statues to the crystal clear water. Her eyes widened when she noticed a much bigger statue of a regal looking arcanine lying completely submerged at the water's depths, its mouth open in a silent snarl of defiance. The pool was not very deep, but all the same it surprised Snowcrystal how clearly she could see the statue through the water. She couldn't tell exactly, but it looked at least four times as big as she was-not quite as big as a real arcanine, but still very detailed and beautiful. The submerged statue did not look very old, but it didn't look as if it had been put there recently either.

Snowcrystal was so mystified by the strange sight that looked so calm and peaceful that she did not notice Redclaw standing beside her on the overhanging rock that towered above the still pool. "I guess we found what we were looking for," the arcanine spoke up, startling her. "Look over there, there's an easy way back onto that path on the cliffs we were following." He angled his head toward the easy climb as the others started to catch up.

"Redclaw…" Snowcrystal began. "How do you think those statues got there?"

"Maybe humans put them there," Redclaw began. "Who knows…maybe this was meant to be a special place to honor pokémon. It doesn't seem like any of the local pokémon here have even tried to disturb them."

Rosie, who along with the others had made it to where Snowcrystal and Redclaw were, had forgotten her exhaustion as she stared down at the pool in awe. It wasn't just the statues that intrigued her-the whole are was startlingly beautiful, and there didn't seem to be any pokémon in or around the pool at the moment.

"This must be a very special place to the pokémon here," Nightshade told the others while looking down from the cliff. "We should probably leave it alone."

Snapping out of her trance, Snowcrystal nodded. The others seemed to have regained both a bit of strength and hope from seeing a place so peaceful after all the danger they had been through, and they needed to keep going. "Redclaw found an easy way down," the growlithe told them. "Follow me!"

Snowcrystal led the others single file over the rough stone as they slowly descended, passing around the statue rock and the clear pool. It wasn't long before they were back on another wide ledge covered in foliage where the going was much easier. Snowcrystal paused to look back at the silent statues one more time, seeing the sunlight hit the water and illuminating the beautiful arcanine statue. The fangs in its open mouth seemed to sparkle in the sunlight, and she could see the entire statue clearly now. She lifted her gaze to the small statues standing so peacefully and undisturbed, sheltered from storms by the cliffs that surrounded them, and then she turned and carried on, leaving the tranquil sight behind.

* * *

They hadn't been walking for a long time when Nightshade realized that something was wrong. He had a strong feeling that he and the others were being watched, and not by particularly friendly pokémon either. The heracross kept his suspicions quiet, for he did not want the unseen strangers to realize that he noticed anything before he could find out more about them.

His eyes darted from side to side as he walked, noticing almost every faint rustle of leaves or bushes. Blazefang noticed his odd behavior and watched him, confused.

"What are you doing?" the houndour sneered at Nightshade, giving the bug pokémon a glare.

"Worry about yourself and leave the rest of us alone unless you have something of importance to say," Nightshade replied calmly, turning away from him.

"Blazefang has a right to be curious," Wildflame spoke up. "I've been noticing you acting strange too. What is it?"

Nightshade sighed. "We're being watched," he told her, barely above a whisper.

Snowcrystal and Redclaw heard it too, and paused to look at Nightshade in confusion. Thunder had heard as well, but unlike the others she didn't seem shocked or surprised. Snowcrystal opened her mouth to question either her or Nightshade but several fierce cries that seemed to come from everywhere around them at once stopped her from saying anything.

Out of the bushes and trees and up from the river area toward them several pokémon suddenly appeared, circling the group and hemming them in against the cliffs. There were about twelve of the strangers, and they were all of various species, types, strengths, and sizes, but they were all predators and seemed to belong to a clan of some sort.

Thunder's eyes blazed and she took a step forward as if about to attack, but Redclaw stood in her way, looking at her pleadingly. For a moment she looked ready to attack him, but then paused and lowered her scythes. She simply did not have the energy.

Knowing that he was making a bold move, Nightshade stepped forward to face the closest two pokémon-a zangoose and a salamence, both of whom eyed him warily.

"Look," Nightshade began. "I know we're in your territory, but we don't mean to be a threat. We're looking for a place we can rest before carrying on."

The salamence and zangoose looked unsure of how to respond, when a voice sounded from somewhere nearby. "Oh leave them alone! They aren't any threat to us!"

Nightshade and his friends turned to see a linoone jump gracefully from a tall tree growing near the top of the cliff and land gracefully beside the rest of the strangers. "I don't see what the problem is," the linoone continued, staring at her stunned clanmates, "it's not like there's any food shortage or anything. And they've been traveling for a while from the looks of it."

The zangoose stepped past Nightshade to face the linoone. "Our leader wants us to make sure any strangers are harmless before they go any further through this canyon!" he growled.

"Oh sure," the linoone replied. "Clearly a bunch of injured and tired pokémon are a real threat to our _great leader_. Just look at them-if anything they need help. And at least the heracross knows how to be polite, unlike you."

Taken aback, the zangoose faced the travelers again. He looked uncertain. "But-"

"Our leader has allowed us to help others in the past," the linoone continued. "And I thought that was one of the duties of our clan-to help those in need."

"That was one of the _old_duties!" the zangoose growled, but seeing that some of the others who had originally confronted the travelers seemed to be agreeing with the linoone, he relented. "Fine," he muttered. "We'll take them to the clan. But don't get mad at me if our leader rejects them."

"If he wants to stay leader he won't," the linoone replied sharply. "It is a leader's duty to allow the clan to help others and to help as well!"

"Maybe so," the zangoose replied, "but the leader only helps when he sees fit. And I don't see what this little group of travelers could do for us. And as for him staying leader, well…he certainly won't be giving up the position anytime soon. And there are many who support his ways, as I do."

The linoone's eyes narrowed. "Maybe not, but if he wants the respect of half the clan, he'll help them." She turned to the travelers who all looked either confused, worried, or both. "Follow me," she told them. "We'll take you to a place where you can rest."

Following the linoone gratefully, Snowcrystal and her friends joined the native pokémon as they all climbed down toward the river.

* * *

In the early morning light, the place where Cyclone's army had been resting now lay desolate after the vaporeon had gathered his army together and began undertaking the journey. It was not far, but rounding up everyone had taken time, and Cyclone still needed to find the hidden entrance's specific location. However, now that the army had left that area, the local pokémon lucky enough to have avoided them before could now breathe a sigh of relief.

But the army had left one pokémon behind. Lying half submerged in thick mud at the bottom of a shallow ditch in the ground where rainwater had once collected was Stormblade. Having no further need for him, Solus had simply tossed him there using his psychic powers after the scyther had finally passed out from pain. Now Stormblade was completely alone, apart from two inquisitive poochyena who approached the ditch curiously, then left when they discovered that he was a half-starved scyther and not some plump prey pokémon. All throughout this time Stormblade lay senseless.

It was a while before he woke up. When he finally did awaken, he was in so much pain that he was hardly aware of anything around him. His wounds were covered thickly with dry or drying blood, and one of his wings lay limp and broken at his side. For a while he could do nothing but lay there alone in the mud. But the memory of himself giving away his friends' plans of escape was burned in his mind. He had helped put them all in danger, and though his situation seemed hopeless, he had to warn them.

Stormblade's first few attempts to stand up failed, and instead he was forced to crawl slowly through the deep mud and up and out of the shallow ditch. Several times the pain made him stop or suddenly scream in agony, but he forced himself to keep going until he made it out and onto the grass at the edge of the ditch. Once he felt the grass beneath him he collapsed, lying still for a long time.

However he knew that he could not just lie there. Pushing himself painfully upright, Stormblade lurched forward, nearly stumbling to the ground and stopping his fall only by digging his scythes into the soft earth. Even though every instinct within him was screaming for him to lie down and not move, he forced himself to keep going, hobbling painfully and awkwardly on all fours, following the traces of Cyclone's army which would lead him to the canyon. Several times he stumbled, or became so overcome by pain that he could not move, but every time he got back up again. He needed to find his friends before Cyclone did, and he knew he had to keep going, no matter how slim his chances of getting to them before Cyclone were. In his dazed state, he had no way of telling how far ahead Cyclone's army would be by now. He only knew one thing.

_He was going to find his friends and warn them-or die trying._


	37. The Shelter Caves

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 37-The Shelter Caves**

Snowcrystal and her small group traveled among the canyon-native pokémon as the linoone led them down to the river and along the bank, going slowly enough to allow the injured members of the group to keep up. Snowcrystal watched as the linoone walked up to the tall rock face of the cliff nearest to them, pushing aside a large mass of bushes and tangled vines, revealing a big stone passageway.

"Oh no…not more caves…" Spark groaned.

"It's perfectly safe," the linoone reassured him. "There's been some food brought in here today, and there's a small stream running through part of the cave if you want fresh water-you won't have to go outside to get it."

"Food?" Spark repeated, suddenly seeming perfectly fine with the idea of going into the cave.

"Yes," the linoone repeated. "Follow me."

As all the pokémon followed, Redclaw caught up with the linoone. "I may not be the best hunter," he told her, "but if you want…I could also go and collect some food while the others rest."

The linoone shook her head. "Not now you won't," she told him. "Now you _all_need to rest. There will be time for you to hunt later-you can bring food for us then."

The further they walked from the sunlit entrance, the darker the cave became. However, the linoone walked swiftly and confidently as if she was so used to traveling through the tunnel that she didn't even need the light to see by. Snowcrystal glanced at the well-worn floor, seeing by the light of her crystal the shallow claw marks made from countless seasons of pokémon passing through the cave.

Suddenly, it began to get lighter. The linoone emerged into a huge cavern, followed closely by the travelers and the native pokémon. Snowcrystal looked around in awe-unlike the cave they had traveled through before coming here there were few stalactites. In the ceiling were several small holes through which sunlight flickered through, illuminating the cavern. Whenever small clouds drifted above the cavern, some of the lights would dim and then become suddenly bright again, sometimes giving the impression of sparkling stars. All around the cavern were small tunnels and hollows, and standing, sitting, and resting on ledges or in the small hollows were pokémon of various species.

As the group of pokémon who had confronted them on the cliffs separated and walked into various tunnels, some of the ones who had been resting in the cave turned to look curiously at the travelers. The linoone paid them no heed and led the group to the far end of the cavern, where a short tunnel leading to a medium sized cavern was visible.

"This is our healer's room," she told the others. "Anyone who has injuries should follow me. The rest of you, stay here."

Rosie, followed more reluctantly by Spark and then Redclaw, who still had a half-healed gash on his leg, followed the linoone inside. Snowcrystal glanced at Thunder, wondering if she was going to follow too.

"What are you looking at?" the scyther growled, but Snowcrystal noticed that her voice sounded faint and weak. The growlithe decided not to say anything.

The linoone emerged from the healer's cavern, along with a tall gardevoir. Most of the pokémon in Snowcrystal's group seemed surprised that such a pokémon would live in a cave, but it made sense for a gardevoir to be in such a beautiful canyon. "This is Streamrose," the linoone told them. "And well, I realize that I haven't introduced myself. My name is Rockclaw."

Upon seeing Thunder, Streamrose looked shocked. "Don't you think you should-" the gardevoir began, but Thunder didn't let her finish.

"I'm not going in there if that's what you're asking," the scyther replied. "I know better than to trust strangers."

"There's nothing to be afraid of," Streamrose replied, making Thunder narrow her eyes and growl at the healer. "It's my duty to help those who are injured and ill. You don't want those wounds to become infected do you? And…you also shouldn't be traveling or walking around the cave while you're sick."

Thunder looked at her, surprised. "I'm not sick," she told the gardevoir.

"Oh, sure you're not!" Spark shouted from the entrance to the healer's cavern.

Streamrose ignored him. "Er…I'm afraid you are. It's not that hard to tell," she told the scyther, trying not to let her eyes wander to Thunder's scars or collar too much.

"You're wrong," Thunder growled. "I'm not sick."

"Oh really?" Wildflame muttered, giving Thunder an annoyed look. "Then what was that I heard about you getting dizzy spells and fainting in the middle of that big cave? And you've been getting a lot weaker lately, and I see you shivering all the time. If that doesn't fit your definition of sick, what does?"

"I'm just tired," Thunder insisted, "not sick."

"You're a bad liar," Blazefang pointed out, rolling his eyes at the scyther.

Rockclaw prevented further argument by stepping between Thunder and Streamrose. "Look," she told Thunder. "There are plenty of smaller caverns leading off from the healer's den if you want to rest there-you'll be alone except for when Streamrose treats your wounds."

Thunder thought about it for a moment and turned to look at Streamrose. "No," she muttered. "I'll go with the others. I don't trust you. And I don't need to rest now-I'm just tired."

"Rude, aren't you?" Spark muttered. He looked at the healer. "So…uh, do we get food brought to us here?"

"Later," Rockclaw told him. "First I must talk to our leader. The others can come with me. We can bring you some food when we come back."

"Are you sure you want to do all this for us?" Nightshade asked, seeming surprised that Rockclaw and Streamrose seemed willing to do so much for them. Thunder didn't seem impressed, and walked off to explore the cave while waiting for the others.

Rockclaw nodded. "We do not struggle to survive here," she told him. "There is more than enough to go around and finding food is easy. There are many berry bushes here, so plenty of prey, and a river full of fish of course. And we also have these cave tunnels for shelter in case of bad storms. And if any creature that's a threat to us comes here, such as humans, the entrances are well hidden."

"Well, that's nice of you and all," Blazefang began, earning several glares from the others, "but I find it a bit odd that you let that 'Thunder' scyther in here. I'm sure you don't want your entire clan getting miss psycho's sickness do you?"

"I don't think we have to worry," Streamrose replied, giving the houndour a small smile. "We have plenty of herbs to treat illnesses, and that scyther's body is weak-she is more prone to sickness than the rest of us are."

Blazefang said nothing and merely looked away. In his clan, bringing in a foreign pokémon who was ill was completely unacceptable. It meant danger to the clan. "So…where's this…leader of yours?" he asked Rockclaw as Streamrose walked into the smaller cavern.

"I'm going to take you to him," Rockclaw replied. "Just be aware that he doesn't like travelers. Don't say anything that might offend him, or he might send you away…or worse," she added in a quiet whisper. She turned and led them across the large cavern, passing Thunder who rejoined the group reluctantly. The others said nothing as they followed her into a large tunnel veering away from the main room into darkness.

* * *

Cyclone had found the underwater entrance to the cavern. Being a vaporeon, it hadn't been hard. But the question was whether or not the travelers had left yet. It seemed plausible that they would have, considering that they had found the scyther as he was leaving, but he wasn't sure after several of his flying pokémon had searched the canyon from the skies but hadn't spotted them. The travelers couldn't have gotten too far. They had to still be in the cave…

Unless they were hiding of course.

There was always that possibility, but despite the recent trouble they'd had with tracking the houndour, Cyclone wasn't worried. He would have the army wait near the canyon, watching the entrance at all times. If they didn't appear within a day's time, Cyclone would leave some of his pokémon here to watch the cavern just in case, and the rest of the army would storm the canyon. But he preferred that it didn't come to that.

From what he'd seen, the tunnel seemed to go for a long ways underwater, and he did not know how a group mainly consisting of fire types was planning to get through there, but he also knew from interrogating the scyther that they had no other choice.

The vaporeon's gaze passed over the serene canyon, but the beauty was lost on Cyclone. He only saw it as one thing-the possible hiding place of the fire type Forbidden Attack-if it wasn't here now, it soon would be.

* * *

"So this leader of yours…_doesn't_ like helping travelers?" Wildflame asked as they walked through the dark tunnel.

"Well, not really," Rockclaw replied quietly. "But…he doesn't like a lot of things."

"Is he a bad leader?" Snowcrystal asked, giving the linoone a curious glance.

"Well, in the opinion of some pokémon, he is," she muttered, and then fell silent.

"Then why is he the leader?" Snowcrystal asked the linoone, who sighed.

"It's because of the way leaders here are chosen," Rockclaw replied. "The previous leader chose him out of all the potential leaders to take his place after he grew too old to lead. So Scytheclaw was chosen, and he has quite a lot of followers."

"Scytheclaw…" Snowcrystal repeated. "Is he a scyther?"

"He was once," Rockclaw answered. "Now he's a scizor…well, he came here as a scizor-he was trainer owned before, you see. Ever since he became leader a lot of the old ways have changed, and we aren't encouraged to help other pokémon anymore…in fact, we're often discouraged, since Scytheclaw is so focused on making the clan better for us. Digging new tunnels, disguising our homes, broadening our territory…all good things, but we simply don't need them right now. Maybe in the future, but right now there is plenty for us…we should be sharing with others. However, a lot of pokémon here think the change is good."

"I don't understand…" Snowcrystal told Rockclaw. "Scytheclaw may be focused on getting more for the clan, but that hardly makes him a bad leader. He-"

"That's not all of it," Rockclaw replied grimly. "He wants to take over the territory of other clans-make the entire canyon our own…by driving them out or getting them to join us. The other clans want to keep to their own ways, but Scytheclaw thinks it will be better for all the pokémon in the canyon to be ruled by one clan. I don't think forcing other clans to change their ways is right. And neither are his…punishments…for those who openly challenge him or don't follow our new rules."

"Sounds a bit like Firedash on her bad days," Blazefang muttered, following the group through the chilling tunnel. "You know, I find it rather stupid that this leader of yours, Scytheclaw, kept that name after evolving. It doesn't exactly fit anymore, does it?"

Rockclaw smiled grimly at the houndour. "There's a reason he kept his name after evolving," she told him. "Scytheclaw's not your ordinary scizor-the insides of his pincers are as sharp as blades…so when he clamps them shut on a pokémon…well, you get the picture. Scytheclaw spends a lot of time practicing his techniques in duels, and after having been trained by a human, he's an excellent battler, I'll give him that much."

Rockclaw suddenly halted in front of a cavern entrance covered partially by many dry vines hanging from above the entranceway. Pushing past them the linoone, followed by Snowcrystal and then the others following her, stepped into a large circular cavern.

Snowcrystal noticed that there was a light source here as well, from a single large hole near the ceiling on one side of the room. The room itself was decorated with colorful river rocks placed in niches in the cave wall, and several berries and herbs whose purpose was unknown were resting on small stone ledges near the ceiling. She could smell the remains of some sort of prey pokémon and could see patches of fur and feathers scattered on one side of the room.

At first Snowcrystal couldn't see any pokémon in the room, but after the group had only walked a few feet into the cavern, a large pokémon leaped down at them suddenly from the dark and stood in front of them with both a confused and possibly angry expression on his face.

Snowcrystal had never seen a scizor before, but some of the others, like Spark, Redclaw, and Nightshade, had. Scytheclaw looked more formidable than any scizor the three had ever come across. He was a darker red than other scizor, and the spikes on his head looked both longer and sharper. His pincers looked normal at first, but there seemed to be an unnatural-looking sharp edge along the insides, though in the dimly lit cavern, it was hard to see it properly. While Snowcrystal felt intimidated by the scizor's appearance, it was his eyes that unnerved her most-there was something about the look of his calm gaze that gave her the impression that he could be very dangerous if he wanted to be.

"Scytheclaw, these are some travelers we found near the river," Rockclaw told him. "Some of them are injured and sick-I thought it would be best to bring them here. There are three more in Streamrose's den."

Scytheclaw gave each of the visitors a curious and somewhat disapproving glare, and stopped when he noticed Thunder, who was licking an infected cut on her arm and not paying any attention to him. He regarded her curiously-it had been a long time since he had seen another scyther or scizor, and here was one, a female. "Well…" he began, turning to look back at Rockclaw, "at least this time there isn't a lot of them. They may stay for a few days, only if those who are healthy hunt for us."

"I'm sure they will," Rockclaw told him gratefully, relieved that she had caught him in a good mood.

Snowcrystal suddenly noticed that Nightshade seemed uneasy. "What is it?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he whispered back. "I just have this feeling…I think maybe I should go back and try to find Stormblade soon-he'll probably need to rest for a while after walking for so long."

"He knows not to tire himself out too much," Snowcrystal replied. "Don't worry-if you can go out to look for him once we all get a chance to rest, it'll be fine."

Nightshade paused a moment and sighed. "You're right," he replied.

"Are you paying attention?" Scytheclaw snapped, and both Snowcrystal and Nightshade started and turned toward him.

"Uh…sorry," Snowcrystal hastily apologized, hoping she hadn't missed anything. "What did you say?"

"I said that you are to stay in one of the empty caves near the large cavern," Scytheclaw repeated in an annoyed tone. "Rockclaw will show you which ones they are. As soon as you've rested a bit, make sure you hunt. You aren't here so we can be your slaves." With that, he turned away, walking slowly to the other side of the room. Rockclaw beckoned for them to leave.

"This way," she told them, heading back into the dark tunnel.

All the way back through the narrow passage to the large cavern, Snowcrystal kept glancing at Nightshade, who still looked to be at unease. She could tell something was bothering him, but she didn't know what.

"What's the matter?" she asked him.

Nightshade looked at her in sudden surprise as if he had just been jolted out of deep thought. "What? Oh…I don't know…I'm just wondering how Stormblade's going to get into the canyon. It would be very difficult for him to climb down the rocks. I'm going to go back for him soon and help him the rest of the way."

"That's a good idea," Snowcrystal replied. "I'm sure he's had enough of doing things himself by now. He'll probably welcome the help."

Nightshade smiled at her. "He probably will," he replied.

* * *

The group met up with Rosie and Spark in the medium sized cavern Scytheclaw had told them they could sleep in. It wasn't the best cavern, as there was little light and the floor wasn't very smooth, but after gathering some moss and leaves and coating the floor with them, it was much more comfortable.

Spark was in a good mood. "See guys?" the jolteon told them excitedly. "I can walk without limping now. It barely even hurts at all too! I wish you would have known about those herbs, Nightshade."

Nightshade didn't reply, and was starting to look deep in thought again.

"Oh sure, ignore me!" Spark muttered. "You're still not much of a healer."

"Nightshade," Snowcrystal asked. "Are you going to look for Stormblade soon?"

"Yes," Nightshade replied. "I will do so at night, when the army is less likely to see me if I run across some of them. I doubt they'd make much of an effort to stop me if they did while they are so busy searching for Blazefang, but I'd rather be safe."

"Okay," Snowcrystal replied. "Let's just hope Stormblade's all right…"

* * *

By sunset, Snowcrystal and the members of the group able to hunt had brought back prey. During this time, Nightshade decided to venture out of the cave and search for Stormblade. While the others were eating, he stepped out into the cool evening air of the canyon before spreading his wings and flying back toward the hills and the large cave.

As he flew on in silence, he could soon see the wall of rock at the end of the canyon, underneath which was the secret tunnel leading into the cave. However, at the top of this rock, there were pokémon moving. Curious, Nightshade flew closer while making sure to still keep enough distance between himself and these pokémon. It didn't take him long to realize that there were more than just a few-a lot more. With a jolt of shock he realized that this was the army. He quickly veered away from the large group, heading back toward the cave and trying to keep panicked thoughts from his mind. After all, the army wasn't traveling now-first he had to find Stormblade, then he could warn the others.

It was getting darker as Nightshade flew in the direction of the cave, looking for any sign of Stormblade. After a while of searching fruitlessly through the ever-growing darkness, Nightshade was contemplating heading back. He thought he might have a better chance of finding Stormblade when it was daylight, and the scyther had probably taken shelter somewhere-it would be near impossible to find him now. He also knew it would probably be best to warn the others of the army now and not waste any more time. Reluctantly, he headed back.

As he was flying back over the grassy hills, something caught his eye. Near a small group of thin trees, was a pokémon. Uncertain of whether or not it was Stormblade or some stranger, Nightshade flew closer.

It didn't take him long to realize that the pokémon was, indeed, a scyther.

Alarm took hold of Nightshade. Stormblade seemed to be lying down unmoving-and it didn't look like he was asleep. He was lying in the open, not even beneath the trees, on ground that was rocky and hardly suitable for resting on. Nightshade landed at Stormblade's side quickly, looking over his friend in concern.

To say that Stormblade was worse off than before would be an understatement. He was coated from head to claw in mud and in many places, drying blood. Due to this, Nightshade could not see exactly how severe his injuries had become, but it was obvious that he had gained several new ones, and the heracross had a strong feeling that this was no accident. "Stormblade…" Nightshade whispered urgently, nudging his friend's shoulder. As he waited for a response, Nightshade realized that Stormblade was lying down in such a way that his shoulder was being pressed against the sharp edge of one of his blades. He obviously hadn't lay down this way-he must have fallen. Quickly Nightshade moved the blade away from Stormblade's shoulder, walking closer to him. "Stormblade, wake up!" he whispered, nudging him again.

This time, Stormblade started to stir. All of a sudden he opened his eyes, staring straight in Nightshade's direction. However, it seemed as if he was looking through the heracross as if he didn't exist. Nightshade didn't think that Stormblade was aware that he was standing there.

Stormblade moved his head so that he was no longer staring past Nightshade. He made odd movements like he was trying to lift his arms in an attempt to stand, but after a moment he lay still. Nightshade tried speaking to him again.

"Stormblade, can you hear me?" the heracross asked quietly, nudging Stormblade's shoulder again.

Stormblade gave no indication that he had heard or felt Nightshade nudging his shoulder. He lifted his head slightly, staring straight ahead as if gazing at something Nightshade couldn't see. Nightshade quickly moved in front of him so that he was in Stormblade's line of sight.

"Stormblade…it's me, Nightshade." the heracross whispered, looking more alarmed.

Stormblade gazed blankly through him, leaving Nightshade unsure as to whether he was fully conscious or not, before the scyther opened his mouth slowly to talk. "I…I an…I ne…to t…" He got no further than that, for a moment later he began coughing up blood. Nightshade froze in shock.

"Don't try to talk…I'm going to bring you back to the others," he told Stormblade, carefully lifting him, knowing that now was not the time to worry about touching his wounds. As soon as he picked him up, Stormblade went limp in his arms. The heracross quickly made sure that he was only unconscious, before turning and flying back in the direction he had come, hoping no one from Cyclone's army would see him.

_To be continued..._


	38. Plans for Battle

_(I'll be updating a lot for a little bit because I'm finally trying to get all the chapters posted here, so that's why there will be a lot of new chapters for a while. ^^;)_

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 38-Plans for Battle**

Snowcrystal wasn't feeling tired. Worried about Nightshade and Stormblade, she had stayed up by the cave's entrance, waiting for the heracross's return.

The growlithe was still pacing back and forth anxiously when the sound of rapidly beating wings reached her ears. Excited, she ran out of the cave and skidded to a halt on the grass outside at the same time Nightshade landed. Snowcrystal could barely see through the darkness, but the silhouette of Nightshade carrying what had to be Stormblade could clearly be seen as the heracross staggered forward, seeming very exhausted.

"Nightshade!" Snowcrystal called, making the heracross look up at her with his gleaming yellow eyes, which were wide with alarm. "You…you found Stormblade," the growlithe began hesitantly, suddenly wondering why the scyther was still and unmoving while being carried. "Is he all r-"

"Get…help!" Nightshade gasped as he staggered forward, his whole body shaking. He looked as if he was about to collapse. Snowcrystal realized that he had to have flown very far and very fast to be in this sort of state. "Go!" Nightshade cried, pausing to catch his breath.

Snowcrystal turned and ran, confusion preventing her from knowing whether to be worried or relieved that Stormblade was now here. She knew she should be going to find Streamrose, but she found her paws taking her to her friend's resting cavern first instead.

"Everyone!" she yelled once reaching it, waking the sleeping pokémon up, "Nightshade found Stormblade!"

Spark yawned and stretched his front paws. "See?" he muttered. "I told you Stormblade couldn't get here all by himself."

"Well," Rosie told him, flicking the jolteon with one of her tails, "Stormblade is tired, and it's better for him not to aggravate his wounds further. I want to ask him how _he_ got out of that cave-I'll bet it was a lot easier than what we had to do…"

"Well…I couldn't see through the dark but…Nightshade told me to get help so I'm going to find Streamrose," Snowcrystal replied. She turned around and sleepily the group followed her, curious and excited, out of the cavern.

"I'll get Streamrose, Snowcrystal," Redclaw volunteered. "The rest of you go see what Nightshade needs help with. Stormblade might have worsened his wounds with all that traveling."

The group left the cavern together, and even Blazefang followed out of sheer curiosity. Redclaw headed off toward the healer's cavern as soon as they reached the main chamber of the cave. Snowcrystal paused to look around and noticed Thunder standing uncertainly at the entrance to the cavern they'd been resting in. The scyther looked very unsteady on her feet.

Wildflame noticed her as well. "You don't have to come if you don't want to," the houndoom told her. Thunder just looked at her with a blank expression. "Get some rest," Wildflame told her in a calm tone. "We might not be back in a while since we all want to talk to Nightshade and Stormblade, so you'll be alone in the quiet."

Thunder didn't bother to reply, but she silently agreed and walked back into the cavern. Wildflame caught up with the others quickly as they headed briskly through the large cavern. "I think Thunder is getting worse," Wildflame sighed as she walked. "I kept trying to help her earlier but she just wouldn't respond to me-not even to growl or anything. She's been getting thinner too…"

"Is that even possible?" Spark asked, rolling his eyes.

"Good question," Blazefang muttered. Spark shot him a seething glare and the houndour withered under his gaze.

Snowcrystal barely heard the others' conversations as they made their way to the cave entrance. Snowcrystal darted ahead of everyone else as she saw that Nightshade had made it into the big cavern from the tunnel leading outside.

The others quieted and followed, gathering around the tunnel entrance as Wildflame used her ember attack to light up the area around her. Luckily most of the cave pokémon were asleep in other caverns, so they were not bothered by the sudden bright light. Nightshade looked up at her gratefully as he staggered into view, carrying the limp form of Stormblade with him.

Snowcrystal gasped when she saw him clearly. Stormblade's entire body was coated in sticky mud, and many of his wounds-both new and old-were bleeding. Blood was also dripping from his half-open mouth. The scyther looked like a muddy, bloody mess, and one of his wings was bent at an awkward angle. Nightshade carefully set Stormblade down before half-collapsing himself in exhaustion, and Snowcrystal saw that there were several cuts on Stormblade's back in addition to the burns, and all were leaking blood.

Everyone seemed alarmed-Wildflame looked as if she couldn't tell if Stormblade was alive or dead-the look on her face made Snowcrystal believe that she thought he could die any second if something wasn't done. Blazefang looked absolutely disgusted by Stormblade, Spark seemed frozen in complete shock, and Rosie had suddenly gone very pale, looking as if she was about to pass out.

Blazefang was the first to overcome the shock and break the silence. "So…is he dead, or…going to be?" he asked.

"Neither!" Wildflame told him, and Blazefang looked at her in surprise. Wildflame quickly looked away and turned back to Stormblade. Blazefang's expression had read, '_Do you actually care about this scyther?_'

Suddenly Snowcrystal felt Redclaw's pelt brush against hers as he and Streamrose arrived and approached Stormblade and Nightshade, who was still too exhausted to stand. The gardevoir stifled a gasp as she looked at the bloodied scyther lying on the cave floor.

"What happened?" she asked, looking around at the group.

"I don't know," Nightshade said weakly, getting shakily to his feet. "He was hurt very bad before…but not this bad. Something happened to him recently…I don't know what."

Streamrose bent down to examine the wounds quickly. Nightshade looked at them too, and though he couldn't tell for sure, the newer injuries looked at least a day old. An alarmed thought entered his mind. _How long had Stormblade dragged himself across those hills and fields in this condition?_

"Help me get him in the healer's cavern," Streamrose said to Nightshade, and despite his exhaustion the heracross nodded. The two of them carefully lifted Stormblade and headed toward the rocky opening. By this time, a few curious pokémon had entered the large cavern to see what was going on, whispering quietly to each other as they got a glimpse of Stormblade. Streamrose and Nightshade paid them no heed. Snowcrystal saw Stormblade's scythe dragging limply across the ground, leaving a thin trail of blood as Nightshade and Streamrose brought him inside the cavern.

Snowcrystal tried to follow but Wildflame stopped her. "Better let Streamrose handle this," she told the growlithe. "We'd probably just get in the way."

A few moments later, Nightshade emerged and rejoined the group. "I think we may have to wait a while…" he told them tiredly. "I don't know when Stormblade will wake up. And there's something I need to tell the leader here. For now though, those who want to can go back to our cavern and rest."

The others didn't say anything, though it was easy to tell that none of them felt like resting. Wildflame sighed. "Guess we're all staying here then," she whispered. "At least it'll give Thunder a bit of peace."

Blazefang, who had just previously been debating on whether or not to go back and sleep, despite how unnerved he was, immediately dismissed the idea at the thought of being alone in a room with the crazy scyther who had tried to kill him before. Unfortunately, he realized, he was stuck here for now.

Nightshade looked worriedly at the group. "I need to speak to Scytheclaw," he told them. "If any of you want to come, follow me. It's…it's about Cyclone's army. They've reached the canyon."

The entire group of pokémon looked alarmed, Blazefang in particular, but no one said anything. It was as if the shock of seeing Stormblade in such horrible condition hadn't yet worn off enough for them to be very shocked about anything else.

"I'll go," Snowcrystal told the heracross, and Wildflame, Rosie, and Redclaw agreed to go with Nightshade as well.

"Oh great, I have to stay here alone with _him_?" Spark growled, looking at Blazefang.

"Believe me, I'm not happy about it either," the houndour retorted.

Snowcrystal ignored the two and followed Nightshade as the heracross rushed into the tunnel leading to Scytheclaw's cavern. The growlithe leapt back in shock as Nightshade was suddenly pushed roughly aside by Scytheclaw as the scizor strode into the large cavern, obviously annoyed by the commotion.

"What's going on?" the leader shouted, and Nightshade quickly moved in front of him.

"I've just brought our friend back here," the heracross explained quickly, "but there is something else important I need to tell you…"

Scytheclaw stiffened, staring at Nightshade in shock. "Is that…_blood_? What is going on?!"

Nightshade simply stared back at Scytheclaw in confusion, until he realized that his arms and chest were covered in blood. "It's…it's Stormblade's blood," he explained. "He was the friend I brought back. He's hurt and-"

"I don't care!" Scytheclaw hissed, walking past him toward the group of pokémon who had been watching.

Stubbornly, Nightshade ran in front of him. "I have to warn you," he told him. "An army of pokémon has found this canyon and they're getting ready to travel through it! You have to stay here and hide." He didn't mention that the reason the army would be traveling was because they were after Blazefang; he didn't want the pokémon here to turn against them. And even though Blazefang was Cyclone's main target, these native pokémon would likely be forced to join the vaporeon's army if they got in its way.

Scytheclaw could hear the worried murmurs among the steadily growing crowd of pokémon in the cavern. "Well…" the scizor said slowly, "then I will send someone to see for themselves in the morning." Nightshade's eyes blazed as he realized that Scytheclaw didn't trust him, but the leader went on without giving him so much as a glance, "but if there is such a threat, we will not hide. We are not cowards, and our clan is not small in numbers. We-"

"You can't _fight_!" Nightshade cried, knowing that a battle would be catastrophic even if the army did not have another one of the Forbidden Attacks. He stood right up to Scytheclaw, staring into the tall scizor's eyes. "You have no idea what you'd be going up against. You don't know anything about them. You can't just-"

In a burst of furious hostility, Scytheclaw lashed out at Nightshade with one of his open pincers with such force that it not only cut a wide gash above his right eye, but it knocked him to the ground completely. "You don't give the orders around here!" the scizor snarled, standing threateningly over the heracross.

Looking dazed, Nightshade got to his feet. "Believe me, it would be better to hide and let them pass. Cyclone's army is far stronger-"

He stopped abruptly as the scizor knocked him down again. "What would you know about strength?" Scytheclaw sneered. "My clan is powerful and strong, and just because you consider us weak does not mean we should hide like cowards." The leader strode past him again, moving toward the members of his clan grouped together.

"I'm telling you…" Nightshade said quietly, standing up again. "You're making a mistake."

Scytheclaw responded without even looking at him. "I would _not_ be making a mistake by protecting our home from something as destructive as an army of pokémon," he said icily.

"Wait!" a pokémon in the growing crowd called out. "Are you sure this is a good idea. What if-" Scytheclaw rounded on him. The speaker, a leafeon, took a few steps back.

"Scytheclaw is right," a silver-furred mightyena replied. "That army could destroy or greatly damage our home."

"Not to mention steal our prey," a pidgeot cried. "I'd be willing to fight to keep that scum off our land!"

A few other pokémon murmured in agreement, but the rest looked uncertain. Then, another speaker stepped forward. It was a sleek, black-furred, almost cat-like pokémon with yellow ring markings on its legs, tail, ears, and forehead. Nightshade recognized it as an umbreon. The umbreon looked around the cave at all the pokémon gathered there. "Are you mad?" he cried. "We don't know anything about this army and already you're willing to try and fight it? And even if our clan _could_ defeat them, a group of pokémon the size of an army would kill and injure many, then what would we do? There wouldn't be enough of us to find food or defend ourselves from other intruders!"

"Moonlight is right," a glameow called. "Even if we end up having to search outside the canyon for food, it's better than risking injury and death."

Several of the pokémon bristled and glared at the two, especially the umbreon. The majority, however, moved toward Moonlight and the glameow and looked back at Scytheclaw almost fearfully.

"We don't want to fight," a flareon told the leader timidly.

Scytheclaw's pincers clenched together tightly as he gave the group facing him a seething glare. Snowcrystal wondered what would happen and if Scytheclaw would order them to fight anyway.

Scytheclaw looked ready to do just that, when the zangoose Snowcrystal had seen before whispered to him. "Scytheclaw…" he told the leader. "Outright ordering with them could cause problems. Problems we don't want to deal with. We-"

Scytheclaw silenced him, understanding what he meant. If most of his clan was siding with Moonlight and the heracross, ordering them could lead to a refusal to fight. But there was another way, a part of the clan's ancient laws and traditions the pokémon would have to respect and obey.

Snowcrystal watched as Scytheclaw approached Moonlight. She hadn't heard what the zangoose had whispered to him, but she sensed that something in the leader's attitude had changed.

The scizor reached the group of pokémon who all nervously turned their eyes on him. "It seems as if most of you here don't want to try defending our territory," Scytheclaw announced in a deceptively calm voice. "But there are several of us who do." He paused to look at those who had moved to the other side of the cave, showing their support for him as leader. "It seems as if the best way to make this decision…would be the traditional way."

Snowcrystal looked around nervously, spotting Rockclaw nearby and moving over toward her. "Rockclaw…what's the…traditional way?"

Before the linoone could answer, Scytheclaw himself explained to the pokémon in the cave, glaring at Nightshade in particular. "The traditional way," he began, "as you all know, except for you…newcomers…is that when a large number among the clan supports one decision, and another large number the other, a battle decides the outcome."

"And a pokémon from the side opposing the leader's choice…must fight the leader," the zangoose added.

"And the winner makes the decision," Moonlight finished. "We know. That method hasn't been used in years. But if it's what you want, then I accept. Let's see what _they_think."

Moonlight turned to the group of pokémon who had supported him, who all looked uncertain for a moment. However, each of them knew that they had little choice. It was either accept Scytheclaw's terms and send someone to fight for a chance at avoiding a large-scale battle, or be forced to fight by the scizor and his many followers. One by one they all reluctantly murmured their agreement.

"We should hold the battle now," Moonlight growled, staring into Scytheclaw's eyes without a hint of fear. "If no one else is willing, I will volunteer to be-"

"No!" Scytheclaw said quickly, leaving Moonlight looking confused. "One of _them_ must do it." He waved his claw toward Snowcrystal and her companions. "It was one of them that started this. And the battle will be held tomorrow morning."

"What?" Moonlight cried. "They're not part of the clan-this has nothing to do with them!"

"If they don't have anything to do with us then why don't we throw them out?" Scytheclaw snapped. "Leave them to fend for themselves and perhaps slow down that army-"

"No!" Snowcrystal shouted, and everyone turned to look at her. She backed up a little, wishing she could disappear, but knowing she had to continue. "We'll do it…" she said quietly. "If we can stay here, one of us will battle." She immediately turned her gaze to the cave floor as the pokémon continued to stare. She could not tell if her decision had been a good one or not. Yet, even if one of her friends was injured in the fight, it would be better than all of them having to face Cyclone's army without anywhere to hide, and Stormblade being without care. None of her friends said anything, but Snowcrystal was sure that they had realized the same thing-they didn't have much of a choice.

"Very well…" Scytheclaw told her, and turned swiftly back to the tunnel leading to his cavern. "It's settled then-the battle tomorrow will determine what we shall do. Any of you who can fly, find out what you can about the army when daylight comes. One of you can inform the newcomers of where it will take place, because I expect the one who will fight to be there by sunrise."

Scytheclaw disappeared into the tunnel, leaving the pokémon who had supported Nightshade worried and Moonlight fuming. Angrily, the umbreon turned away and stalked into another tunnel, and the large group of pokémon gradually dispersed, whispering anxiously among themselves. Rockclaw approached Snowcrystal and the small group clustered around her, and quietly led them into a small empty cavern.

Once they were there, Nightshade faced Rockclaw with a serious look on his face. "I'll be the one to fight," he told her. "I was the one to speak out against him-this is more between me and him than any of you."

"Don't be silly, Nightshade," Wildflame told him. "Let one of us fire types do it!"

"That's not a good idea," Rockclaw told them quietly, and everyone looked at her in surprise. She sighed and explained to them, "the battle arena is outside this cavern. It's protected by a wall of rock on all sides, and the rocks and trees overhead make it difficult to spot from above so you don't have to worry too much if that army decides to attack then. But…there's foliage everywhere, and fire attacks would not only burn it but it would spread all throughout the canyon…which is why no pokémon is allowed to use fire attacks in the arena."

"Who else thinks he planned it that way?" Spark muttered darkly.

"Well, what else hurts bug or steel types?" Wildflame asked.

"Rock types…" Redclaw told her after thinking for a moment.

"None of us know any rock type attacks!" Rosie cried.

Blazefang, who wanted the fight to be won so they could hide in safety as much as everyone else did, decided to speak up. "I think I have an idea-" he began.

"If you're thinking of using Shadowflare, forget it!" Rosie snarled.

"No! I wasn't thinking that!" Blazefang growled, casting an anxious glance at the confused Rockclaw. "I had another idea. Why not set Thunder loose in the arena and let her rip that scizor to shreds like she tries to do with everything else!"

"Thunder is ill," Nightshade told him. "She could probably still put up a good fight if she was provoked, but she would be injured severely."

"And is that a problem?" Blazefang asked.

Nightshade ignored him. "Like I said, I'm willing to do it," he told the small group again. "I've had a lot of experience in battles and I have not been traveling as long as the rest of you-I'm not nearly as tired."

"I don't know," Blazefang replied. "You don't look like you could take down a scizor. I'm still going with the Thunder idea. I mean, come on, she'd get some exercise and get to kill someone at the same time. She'd love it!"

"Forget it," Redclaw told him. "Thunder is wounded enough. And I suppose Nightshade is right. He is the healthiest and will stand the best chance in a fight if none of us fire types can use our best attacks."

Everyone finally agreed, and wearily they headed back to the cavern they had been resting in. Thunder glanced up at them as they approached but said nothing. Before trying to rest until the morning, Snowcrystal walked over to Nightshade. "Nightshade…" she whispered. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I will do what I have to," he replied. "Now get some rest. And don't worry, I will be fine."

Snowcrystal walked back to where she had been resting, knowing that she would get no sleep that night. She was far too worried about the army, about Stormblade, and about Nightshade to have any hope of falling asleep.

* * *

Scytheclaw wasn't sure what to think about the reactions of Moonlight and many of his other clan members. Yet at least they had agreed to let a battle see who would decide whether the clan should fight the army. In his chamber, he waited until the zangoose from before had brought him prey. Afterwards, the two had talked about the approaching army, and then, the upcoming fight.

"Which one of them do you think is going to fight?" the zangoose asked, looking at Scytheclaw. "It'll probably be one of the fire types if no one's told them about the arena's rules."

"It doesn't matter," Scytheclaw told him simply. "All that matters is that they are defeated quickly. That umbreon worried me…I know there are several pokémon who would leave the clan if it weren't for the shelter we have, and would fight against us if they weren't so against taking part in large battles."

"Maybe…after the battle, you can get them to see it your way," The zangoose suggested.

"Some of them simply won't listen," Scytheclaw replied. "A better idea would be to remind them what they are up against if they ever decide to rebel."

"You mean the battle?" the zangoose replied. "I don't really think that'll do much. These pokémon have seen the battles before."

"This battle will be a little different…" Scytheclaw said quietly.

"Different?" the zangoose repeated. "What do you mean? What sort of battle is it going to be?"

Scytheclaw smiled. "A battle to the death."

_To be continued..._

_**Author's Note**: Moonlight the Umbreon a tribute to the umbreon in my Gold Version (which was the first game I had). I love umbreon and there isn't an umbreon in the main cast of characters, so when I needed an extra pokemon, umbreon it was!_


	39. The Battle

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 39-The Battle**

Snowcrystal left her friends' cavern in the early morning. She was tired of waiting for sunrise. She thought of going to check on Stormblade, and quickly made her way back to the cavern her friends were still resting in to see if any of them wanted to come with her.

Upon entering the cavern, she wasn't surprised to find everyone still awake-no one had slept the entire night. Nightshade, however, wasn't there. Unsure of where he had gone, she asked the others if any of them wanted to see Stormblade, but to her surprise, all but Rosie refused. Snowcrystal wasn't sure she could blame them, and it surprised her that Rosie had been willing to come; the ninetales had looked the most shocked and horrified upon seeing Stormblade's condition before.

They headed toward the healer's cavern together, and when they reached it, they were surprised to find the healer gone. She supposed that Streamrose must be caring for some other pokémon somewhere else, but she found herself feeling a bit angry that she had left Stormblade alone.

As she walked inside, it didn't take the growlithe long to find Stormblade in one of the small caverns further back, near a small pool where water had collected from somewhere else in the cave. He was lying on a large patch of moss next to the water, and though Snowcrystal could see that he was no longer covered in mud, that fact actually made looking at him worse. Now that the mud was gone, she could see how badly hurt he was. On his back were long vertical gashes that made Snowcrystal wonder what on earth could have torn wounds so deeply in an armored pokémon. There were other cuts as well, but none of them were as severe as the ones across his back. As she approached Stormblade, the scyther didn't give any indication that he was awake.

She walked closer, nudging Stormblade's head with her muzzle. This time, the scyther's eyes slowly flickered open and turned to look at her. His blue eyes seemed dull and lifeless, in a way that she had never seen them before. It startled her.

"Snowcrystal?" he asked in a barely audible voice, and as he opened his mouth, Snowcrystal could see that there was blood covering most of his white teeth. "I thought you were dead."

"Dead?" Snowcrystal repeated. "But why would I-"

"Where are the others?" Stormblade asked. "Are they dead?"

Snowcrystal rapidly shook her head, and Rosie stepped forward, to show Stormblade that she was there as well. She wondered why the scyther hadn't smelled her. "We're all fine," Snowcrystal told him. "Well, Thunder's sick, but…" Her voice trailed off as she realized that she probably shouldn't have told him that.

"You're all here?" Stormblade whispered, sounding more hopeful than she had heard him sound so far. Looking at him, she nodded. Stormblade seemed both relieved and confused. His eyes moved away from Snowcrystal and to the wall of the cave. After a moment he continued. "I think I understand now," he continued in his wavering voice. "That night…when I was traveling alone, I saw Solus kill all of you. I realize now it must have been a dream, or I was hallucinating…but when I was with Cyclone's army, Solus told me he would do it…showed me he could with his psychic powers, so I thought that what I saw was real, and I gave up after that."

Snowcrystal was at a loss for what to say, but before she could open her mouth to say anything, Rosie spoke instead. "Well we're not dead!" she cried. "You shouldn't have believed anything that stupid pokémon said!"

Stormblade didn't reply. He lay still for a moment, his eyes flickering closed. Then he spoke to Snowcrystal. "Is Thunder all right?"

"Thunder!?" Rosie shouted, interrupting Snowcrystal before she could reply. "Thunder's the last pokémon you should be concerned about! She's just fine, now stop worrying about her!"

Snowcrystal was startled by Rosie's outburst, but she said nothing, not wanting to spark an argument while they were around Stormblade. Instead, she glanced around the cavern and saw a dead taillow near where Stormblade was lying down. Realizing that someone must have brought it in for Stormblade earlier, she walked over to it, seeing how thin Stormblade looked. When she reached it, she could see that it was completely untouched, and when she brought it over to Stormblade, he made no move to even acknowledge it. He looked for all the world like he had just given up.

She was trying to think of something she could do to help when Streamrose returned. Snowcrystal and Rosie both looked up in surprise as the healer entered, and they could tell she didn't look pleased.

"Who let you in here?" she asked crossly. "Get out and leave him alone until I say you can come here!"

Startled, Snowcrystal and Rosie hastily left without a reply. "Why did she sound so angry?" Rosie asked, looking back at the tunnel entrance in confusion.

"I don't know…" Snowcrystal replied. "Maybe she's overwhelmed by having to take care of a lot of pokémon…" Her voice trailed off. Truthfully, she wasn't worried about why the healer had yelled at them. She was worried about Stormblade.

Both fire types looked up as Nightshade approached. "She didn't let you see Stormblade?" he asked, and Snowcrystal shook her head, though she didn't tell him that she _had_ gone to see him before anyway. Nightshade was silent, and for a moment he looked away from them toward the pokémon who were walking through the large cavern nervously in anticipation.

Nightshade knew that he had to find Rockclaw, who would show him where the battle arena was so he could be there in time for his battle with Scytheclaw. Turning to Rosie and Snowcrystal, he told them, "I'm going to find Rockclaw soon. I'm not sure if other pokémon are allowed to watch, but…if you want, you can come with me there."

Snowcrystal looked up at the heracross, and somehow she felt that Nightshade wanted one of them to be there when he battled. Slowly she nodded.

"I'd…rather not," Rosie admitted. "Not after just seeing Stormblade…like that…" she shuddered.

"I understand," Nightshade replied, a bit disappointed. "You can go back to the others if you want. Come on, Snowcrystal."

Snowcrystal watched as Rosie limped away and then she followed Nightshade as he looked around for the linoone. It didn't take him long to find her, and she quickly led them into yet another tunnel.

"Will Snowcrystal be able to watch?" Nightshade asked her.

Rockclaw nodded. "There are often large numbers of pokémon watching," she told Nightshade. "She and her friends may come."

"Should I ask if any of them want to?" Snowcrystal asked.

Rockclaw and Nightshade nodded, and Snowcrystal ran off. She soon returned with Wildflame, Redclaw, and Spark. The rest had chosen to stay in the cavern. Wordlessly they all followed Rockclaw as the tunnel they were walking through opened up into a large circular space surrounded by tall rocks and foliage on all sides, and lit by the pale light of the early morning sun.

There weren't many pokémon in the area, but those that were there were gathered on the ground or on rock ledges, waiting. Snowcrystal recognized Moonlight the umbreon watching from the top of a tall boulder. "I suppose we just wait?" she asked Rockclaw.

"Yes," the linoone replied with a nod. "I'm not staying here-I don't see the point of watching such a gruesome…'_sport_'." She stood up and walked carefully back through the cavern, leaving Snowcrystal feeling confused.

"Gruesome?" she repeated. "I thought it was just a battle to decide who would-"

"I wouldn't be surprised if it did get gruesome," Redclaw replied. "But if Nightshade can win fast, he can end the battle before Scytheclaw has a chance to fight dirty."

"That's what I plan to do," Nightshade replied.

Gradually, more and more pokémon gathered together in the small area, until the edges of it were rather crowded. All of the pokémon kept well away from the center of the clearing, and Snowcrystal wondered if there were usually this many, or if everyone was simply too anxious to see the outcome of the fight.

It wasn't long before Snowcrystal was led away from Nightshade's side by some of the canyon pokémon and told to sit on one of the ledges. She looked worriedly at her friend, but to her surprise, Nightshade still looked calm and confident. _Maybe_, she thought, _Nightshade really is a great battler. He must know what he's doing…_

Snowcrystal found herself anxiously glancing up at the sky, as if expecting one of Cyclone's army pokémon to fly over the arena and noticed them. Luckily she found that Rockclaw was right-there was so much dense foliage and spires of rock up above them that a flying type could easily fly right over the clearing without noticing anyone.

A sudden silence fell over the arena and Snowcrystal turned to see Scytheclaw striding into the clearing, while Nightshade watched him carefully. The scizor gave the heracross a cold glare, and Nightshade returned it. The pokémon who had accompanied their leader into the clearing quickly scurried to the rock ledges as everyone waited to see what Scytheclaw would say.

To Snowcrystal's surprise, Scytheclaw didn't stop to say anything-instead he darted toward Nightshade with a speed that shocked Snowcrystal completely. _What!?_ She thought, _I thought only scyther could move that fast!_ Nightshade was also unprepared for the sudden onslaught, and though he tried to dodge, he was far too slow-Scytheclaw's razor sharp pincer slashed him across the chest. Nightshade stumbled backward, but Snowcrystal could see that luckily he had moved back enough that it had not done any serious damage. However, Snowcrystal didn't feel any less worried. She could see a few drops of blood dripping from the wound. If Scytheclaw could cut through the heracross's thick armor that easily, Nightshade was in trouble.

Nightshade, however, didn't seem worried or bothered by the injury, though he looked at Scytheclaw with more wariness as he anticipated another attack. A red blur moved across the clearing and came to a halt at the other side, revealing Scytheclaw.

"Surprised?" the scizor hissed at the other bug type. "I never wanted to evolve, so after I was forced into it I trained myself to be able to move nearly as fast as my previous form…and to fly as well."

"I thought we were here to battle, not talk," Nightshade said coldly, but Snowcrystal could see that he was beginning to look worried, as if he wasn't sure what Scytheclaw was planning.

"Of course," Scytheclaw replied with a smile, and without any further warning darted straight across the clearing toward Nightshade.

This time Nightshade saw him coming, and with a shock realized that now the scizor was aiming right for his eyes. The heracross dodged-though not quickly enough-but instead of getting his eyes gouged out by the blade-like pincer, it clamped around his arm. Nightshade swung around, attempting to strike Scytheclaw with his horn, but the scizor moved too quickly. However, this motion allowed Nightshade to dislodge Scytheclaw's pincer before it could cut deeply. The heracross then charged toward the scizor, who retaliated by darting to the left and cutting deeply into Nightshade's side with his pincers.

Snowcrystal watched as small flecks of blood littered the trampled grass, shocked that an attack that vicious would be allowed in this sort of battle. She began to wonder if this really wasn't a sparring match, but deadly combat. Snowcrystal remembered that she had been the one to agree with Scytheclaw that someone from her group would fight, and she wondered with frightening horror if she had unknowingly sent Nightshade to his death.

In the middle of the clearing, Nightshade lurched forward, his eyes half-closed as he gripped a tree with his claws to keep from falling over. Snowcrystal could see that Scytheclaw had wounded him badly. The scizor bolted toward the Heracross again and gritting his teeth, Nightshade spun around, ramming into Scytheclaw with his horn.

Snowcrystal's eyes lit up with hope as Scytheclaw was thrown backwards, landing roughly on the rocky ground. However to her dismay, he quickly stood up, looking unharmed. The scizor rammed into Nightshade, ripping at him savagely with both claws. For a series of seconds the battle went on, Scytheclaw attacking and Nightshade trying to defend, and then the two pokémon stopped to catch their breath.

Snowcrystal became even more afraid. Nightshade had many wounds, but Scytheclaw was completely unscathed. _He was just too tough…too fast…_

Once again, Scytheclaw was the first to attack. This time, however, Nightshade succeeded in blocking the attack with his horn…well, _almost_ succeeded. The scizor quickly locked his claws around the heracross' horn, before slamming the weakened pokémon into the ground. Scytheclaw aimed to slash at his eyes again, and in a frantic attempt to shield himself Nightshade blocked the attack with his arm, and the pincer clamped around it, crushing down with surprising force.

With a cry of rage and pain Nightshade leaped to his feet and slammed into Scytheclaw in one fluid motion, knocking the scizor forcefully into the ground. This time Scytheclaw actually looked winded. "What are you trying to do, kill me?" Nightshade shouted, glaring at Scytheclaw through eyes narrowed to slits. Blood was dripping slowly from his wounds-mostly from his arm and the wound in his side.

"I thought we were here to _battle_ instead of talk…" Scytheclaw hissed as he stood up.

Snowcrystal's eyes then widened in horror as, faster than her eyes could track, Scytheclaw dashed toward Nightshade and slashed him with one of his pincers along his injured side, and blood welled out from the further opened wound. The growlithe found herself unable to watch any longer. Turning from the battle, she bounded along the side of the rocks, looking for a familiar face. With a sickening jolt she remembered that Rockclaw had left the arena, and the way to where her friends were was blocked by the group of pokémon sitting between them. Though no sooner had she started to panic than she noticed Moonlight the umbreon watching from a boulder nearby. As quickly as she could, she made her way over to the dark type.

"Moonlight!" she cried, "What's going on? I thought the battles weren't supposed to be-"

The umbreon regarded her with a hint of surprise but quickly answered before Snowcrystal could finish. "These battles usually last until one of the pokémon gives up," he told her, and she could easily sense the nervousness in his voice.

"Usually?" Snowcrystal replied, but was cut short by another cry from Nightshade.

Snowcrystal frantically turned around, and she quickly realized that Nightshade was trying to block a metal claw attack from Scytheclaw. Startled, she wondered why the heracross seemed barely able to hold the scizor's pincer back-was his arm injured that badly? It looked for a moment like Nightshade was going to collapse-Scytheclaw clearly had the upper claw, and Snowcrystal had no idea what sort of damage those blade-sharp pincers were truly capable of.

Then suddenly, everything changed at once.

With a cry of both effort and pain, Nightshade gripped tighter around Scytheclaw's arm, lifting him up so quickly that the scizor's foot claws were ripped from the earth before he could even register what was happening. Using all his remaining strength, Nightshade slammed Scytheclaw bodily to the ground, knocking the wind from him.

Snowcrystal expected Nightshade to continue the attack while his enemy was weak, but the heracross seemed to need the moment to recover as well. It was Scytheclaw who got up first. With a bellow of rage he dashed toward the heracross, aiming to slice through his armor and into his flesh with his razor sharp claws. The heracross dodged, and instead Scytheclaw found his pincers once again locked around Nightshade's horn. Not wasting his chance, Nightshade flicked his horn upward in one violent movement, tossing Scytheclaw into the air and crashing to the ground again. The heracross then ran toward him, thrusting his horn against the scizor's side and slamming him against a rock. Snowcrystal felt a flicker of hope. _Nightshade was winning…_

But it was just then that the tide of the battle changed again, this time for the worst. Getting up and pushing off from the rock in a huge leap, Scytheclaw spread his wings and moved toward Nightshade like lightning-opening his pincer wide and slashing Nightshade again in his wounded side. Another small spray of blood littered the grass, and this time Nightshade sank to his knees. Scytheclaw paused, catching his breath as he waited to see if the heracross would make a move.

Shaking from head to foot, Nightshade sank to all fours, looking at Scytheclaw through eyes half closed with pain. Scytheclaw grinned, watching his own pincer begin to glow with bright light, a metal claw attack. Rushing forward with a speed that nearly matched a scyther's, Scytheclaw swung the glowing pincer down at the heracross.

In the same moment, Nightshade's eyes opened fully, and with his horn still pointing at an angle toward his foe as he stood on all fours, he lunged toward Scytheclaw, exerting every bit of strength left in his body-which wouldn't have been much, only he was a heracross, one of the strongest pokémon alive. A sickening crack was heard as Nightshade's horn rammed into Scytheclaw's stomach, sending the scizor flying backward against the rock wall with a force that stunned all watching-even Nightshade himself. Scytheclaw slammed into the rock and fell limply to the ground, where he lay still.

Snowcrystal watched, still stunned by the surprising attack, as a pokémon ran to Scytheclaw's side, confirming that he was only unconscious. The zangoose who had supported Scytheclaw jumped to the ground from a rock ledge, a look of worry on his face. "Get the healer!" he cried, kneeling next to Scytheclaw's limp form. A sneasel ran off to do his bidding.

Snowcrystal ran over to Nightshade, who was now lying face-forward on the grass. She examined the wound in his side, which looked like the worst one. It looked deep, but thanks to the heracross's thick armor, the attack had not caused any lethal damage. Nightshade let the growlithe nudge him to his feet, and slowly he made his way toward the cave, stopping for breath every few paces. Snowcrystal looked toward the cave entrance, and just as Scytheclaw was being carried inside, a small persian darted out, looking worried.

"It's here…" the cat like pokémon called. "That huge group of pokémon-the army! It's coming this way…"

"Get inside, everyone!" Moonlight cried, leaping down from his perch on the boulder and entering the cave, followed by the other onlookers.

As they rushed past, Nightshade lost his balance and fell sprawled on the ground. As Snowcrystal leaned down toward him, she saw a shadow flicker over the ground. Looking up, she saw a huge bird fly by-possibly a pidgeot or staraptor. Alarm gripped her as she remembered the threat of Cyclone's flying pokémon. Luckily, though, it hadn't seemed to have seen the pokémon through the foliage above. Looking back at Nightshade again, Snowcrystal tried to nudge the weakening pokémon to his feet.

"Snowcrystal!" a voice shouted, and the growlithe quickly recognized it as Spark's. The jolteon reached her side before she could even look up, helping Nightshade to his feet. Redclaw and Wildflame stood by the cave entrance, looking startled by the blood and Nightshade's condition, but as they walked inside, Wildflame led them carefully back to Streamrose's small cavern.

* * *

Within the cave, there was silence. Nearly every pokémon was straining to listen for sounds of the approaching army, too scared to leave the cave. The silence was almost frightening. Snowcrystal and some of the others sat near Nightshade in the healer's cavern, and although the heracross insisted that he would be fine after a while of rest, she had sensed worry in his voice. And by the way he had worded it, she believed that he expected to ignore the wounds and travel as soon as he got some of his strength back. She wasn't sure that was a good idea.

Snowcrystal was near the entrance to the small cavern, and as she glanced at the other tunnels, she wished she could see where Stormblade was. According to the healer, he was not doing well. It worried her, because at the moment she was busy treating Scytheclaw's injuries in the leader's room. She had told Snowcrystal and her friends once again to leave Stormblade alone.

After a while of waiting, Snowcrystal heard a commotion from the big cavern. Nightshade sat up, staring in the direction of the healer cavern's exit. "Go and see what's happening," he asked Snowcrystal.

Snowcrystal padded out of the small cavern and into the large one, where several pokémon had also gathered. It looked much more crowded now that no one was outside, and even though Snowcrystal was used to being in a large clan, this amount of pokémon in this cave made her uncomfortable.

It was Moonlight who had entered the cavern in a rush from outside, and he looked wide-eyed and scared, his black fur sticking up all over his body. "I saw them a little ways down the canyon," he was saying. "There were at least twice as many pokémon as there are living here. They were coming fast, and I blocked up the entrance to use to get inside, but they could still find our scent."

"Why not put strong-smelling herbs near the entrances?" a houndoom suggested. "That would disguise the scent."

Everyone quickly rushed to get herbs from the battlefield outside, taking great care not to cause too much movement that could be seen from above. Snowcrystal helped them and placed her herbs by the main entranceway. Just as she was turning to leave, she heard the sound of pawsteps outside. Quietly, taking great care, she backed away, the others watching her quickly falling into silence. Once out of the tunnel and into the main cavern, she, Moonlight, and several others watched the hidden entrance with bated breath. The pawsteps quickly faded away, but there was no time to be relieved. That was only the first pokémon.

The army had arrived.

_To be Continued..._


	40. To the Forest

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 40-To the Forest**

Snowcrystal watched the entrance to the cave carefully, knowing that at any moment another pokémon from Cyclone's army could be walking by. A mightyena brushed past her, carefully laying more strong herbs by the entrance. Snowcrystal wanted to tell him that too much might make the area seem suspicious, but at that very moment she heard the sound of more pokémon approaching, and quieted down, waiting and watching.

* * *

Silverbreeze and a luxray named Skyfang had both paused near the hidden entrance. The rest of the army was either moving quickly or scouring the rocks for signs of Blazefang, the houndour who possessed Shadowflare's power. The scyther and the electric type had been chosen to search this area of the canyon, and neither were pleased, knowing that the houndour could be anywhere.

Skyfang wrinkled his nose in disgust, glaring at the scenery around him. "Somethin' stinks over here," he growled. "It smells like some of those nasty plants!"

"Shut up and keep searching!" Silverbreeze snapped. "I can smell it myself and I don't need you complaining."

Skyfang shot the scyther a glare when her back was turned, and lumbered off to search somewhere that smelled less pungent. He was getting tired of Silverbreeze ordering him around, but because she was one of Cyclone's elite pokémon, there was nothing the luxray could do about it.

Now alone, Silverbreeze focused her attention on what she had noticed before Skyfang's interruption. There had been scyther blood spilled here recently. The thick smell of the strongly scented plants made it hard to notice, but Silverbreeze could still detect it. And beneath that, very faintly, was Stormblade's scent.

Silverbreeze had no idea how Stormblade would have gotten this far, unless he had died and some powerful scavenger had dragged him into the canyon. She wasn't exactly sure how she felt about this realization. She did not like Stormblade, but after seeing him tortured, she was beginning to think that maybe Cyclone was the one she should be disliking-his intentions were good but he had made her witness something she would never forget, as much as she wanted to. Of course, she kept all these thoughts to herself. There was no point in trying to persuade Cyclone and risk losing her high rank in the army. And that was in the past now. At least the leader who overthrew her mate was dead now.

The scyther began to realize that the strong scents seemed to be coming from the same place. Curious, she walked toward it, noticing that the scent of the plants made it difficult for her to smell anything else the closer she got.

"Silverbreeze!" Skyfang shouted from somewhere further along the rocky ridge. "I see canine footprints here! They look a bit big to be a houndour's…but I dunno, why don't you come and see?"

The scyther sighed and walked over to him, leaving the area where the air was filled with strong-smelling herbs.

* * *

Knowing that the army was now swarming through the canyon, the pokémon inside the cave still kept very quiet. Most were speaking to one another in hushed whispers or hiding in their caverns. Snowcrystal had finally been allowed to go into the place where Stormblade was resting, and not wanting to bother him much, she lay down beside him.

She knew that Redclaw was helping some of the cave pokémon guard the entrance in case of intrusion, and some of the smaller, stealthier pokémon were venturing outside by a different way to hide in the grass and alert the others to any danger, or to see when the army left.

Blazefang had seemed more frightened than any of the other pokémon, and hid himself deep within the cave tunnels. Wildflame was waiting with him, and everyone else in the cave was also longing for the moment when the army would leave.

Snowcrystal wasn't sure how long she waited in the dim cavern, listening to the worried sounds of the pokémon moving through the main cavern. She knew that a long time had passed, but she had no way of knowing just how long.

She was still in the healer's cavern when she heard one of the pokémon scurry by outside. Curious, she stepped out into the main cave, where a poochyena was addressing the group loudly.

"Most of the army pokémon have moved on," he explained. "I think it will be safe soon."

"Are you sure?" someone asked. "They left so soon?"

Snowcrystal couldn't help feeling a bit annoyed-the time she had spent waiting had seemed anything but short. The poochyena went on to tell them that it seemed as if the army had just been passing through.

Rosie turned to Redclaw, looking worried. "If they don't find Blazefang," she whispered to him, "will they come back?"

"I don't know," Redclaw replied. "For now let's just stay here where it's safe."

Rosie sighed and turned away, and Snowcrystal couldn't blame her for being worried. She too was wondering just how safe the cavern really was.

* * *

Cyclone was in a bad mood. The vaporeon did not show it, but the rest of his followers could feel it ebbing from him as the water type walked past them. The army leader couldn't understand how a simple houndour could seemingly vanish. His pokémon had searched through the entire canyon, and the flying types had scanned the area around it. He wondered if Blazefang was still in the giant, maze-like caves after all. If so, it wouldn't be worth losing a large number of pokémon in there to go searching for him. For now, although he hated to admit it, the fire type Forbidden Attack Shadowflare had slipped from his paws.

Calling two of his most trusted pokémon aside, the vaporeon led them away from the main army. He turned toward Silverbreeze, the first of the two. "Take thirty pokémon and watch this area for any sign of him," he ordered. "You'll be in charge of them. If there's no sign of Blazefang in one week, follow our tracks and find us." He turned to look at the other pokémon, a charmeleon. "And you," he began in his same calm tone. "Tell the rest of the army that we will be moving on. There are more Forbidden Attacks in the world than just Shadowflare."

The two pokémon nodded and went off to do his bidding, leaving Cyclone alone with his thoughts.

* * *

A young eevee hidden among the grass at the top of a cliff watched the army move off into the distance. He stayed still as the last of Cyclone's pokémon climbed out of the canyon and headed toward the plains that bordered the edge of a forest that lay near the canyon. They kept well away from the forest, heading past it and further across the plains. It made sense that a large army would not want to travel through a forest, but the small eevee wondered where it was that they _were_ going. Quietly he slipped back to tell the others in the cave, Silverbreeze's group escaping his notice.

* * *

As the news that the army had left the canyon spread through the caves, pokémon gradually dared to venture out and bring back food. They did not go too far, and the remainder of the day passed without any trouble from strange pokémon.

Even after several more days, most of the pokémon stayed close to the cave, worried that the massive group of pokémon would return. Every time Snowcrystal saw them at unease, she couldn't help but think she and her friends were responsible for leading them here. After all, they had agreed to let Blazefang come with them to keep Cyclone away from the fire Forbidden Attack.

Though Nightshade's wounds had begun healing, Stormblade didn't seem much better off. Streamrose's herbs had stopped his infection from spreading…for now…but the scyther looked just as weak as ever, and would barely eat. Snowcrystal wasn't sure about Thunder's condition-she never saw the scyther except for when she ventured out of her small cavern to nibble at the food the others had left for her and then leave again. Snowcrystal wondered if this was a good time to try and get her to trust them more, since she seemed more willing to accept help, though she had been told by the others that it was probably best to leave her alone-no one wanted to make her angry when she was so weak.

Her thoughts drifted back to her friends everywhere she went, it seemed, but as she walked by the healer's cavern for the sixth time that morning, Snowcrystal wanted to try and distract herself. Spotting Wildflame and Redclaw nearby, she walked over to them nervously.

"Do you think we should go bring back some food for the others?" she asked. "I…I could use some practice hunting among grass and trees," she added in embarrassment.

"All right," Redclaw replied, seeming to sense why she wanted to be out of the cave. "Let's just be careful and not go too far."

Wildflame stood up as well, nodding to Snowcrystal to show her that she was willing to go. Snowcrystal smiled back at the two and led the way out of the cave.

* * *

That afternoon, when Snowcrystal was coming back with Redclaw and Wildflame, something unexpected occurred. The young growlithe had not caught any prey; her white fur was still too noticeable in a grassy landscape. Redclaw and Wildflame, however, had both caught something and were bringing it back to the others when the zangoose they had seen at Nightshade's battle confronted them.

"What are you doing here?" Wildflame growled, dropping her prey. During their stay, the houndoom's dislike for the zangoose had grown.

"I'm here on Scytheclaw's orders," he replied hastily, ignoring Wildflame's hostility. "He has told me to tell you that you must be gone from this place…from this cave and from this canyon by tomorrow morning. You have brought nothing but trouble upon us."

_WHAT?_ Snowcrystal wanted to yell, but she kept her mouth shut. She exchanged glances with Wildflame, wondering if Scytheclaw had found out about why Cyclone had entered the valley. Snowcrystal decided to speak. "Three of our friends aren't ready to travel," she told him, though she already knew that the zangoose was well aware of Stormblade, Nightshade, and Thunder's condition.

"Doesn't matter," the zangoose snapped. "If you're still here by morning, we have Scytheclaw's orders to attack you." His eyes gleamed threateningly as he turned around and stalked away. "And that includes your scyther friend! Not like it's a bad thing for him to die," he called over his shoulder. Several of the other cave pokémon glanced at Snowcrystal apologetically as the zangoose walked away, as if they weren't pleased with the order either.

Wildflame growled, the fur on her neck and shoulders rising. "That lowlife scizor just wants to get rid of us because of that battle!" she spat.

"I know," Redclaw replied, seeming strangely calm. "But we can't stay here and pick a fight with them…I think we should talk to Streamrose and Moonlight. They might know somewhere safe we can go."

"How are we supposed to get there?" Snowcrystal asked. "With Stormblade-" She stopped mid-sentence, for the other two had already gone off angrily in search of Moonlight. Sighing, Snowcrystal began dragging their prey back to the others.

* * *

Night had fallen, and all but Stormblade now knew of Scytheclaw's hasty decision to force them to leave. Streamrose had given them some of her herbs to take with them, but no one was sure how long they would last. Moonlight had told them that the safest resting place had to be the forest, which Cyclone's army had avoided. At least, Snowcrystal thought, there would probably be an abundance of prey there. She was still so shocked about leaving so suddenly that she had barely thought about where they were going.

"I don't see what you're all so worried about," Rosie muttered, breaking the silence that hung over the small cavern where most of the group members were resting. "I'll be glad to get away from all these strange pokémon and their awful leader. Resting in a forest sounds nice after waiting in these caves for so long!"

"It hasn't been that long," Wildflame replied. "And the only problem with the forest is _getting_ there."

"Moonlight showed us an easy way to climb out of the canyon," Rosie responded. "Maybe Redclaw can carry Stormblade. Carefully, of course."

Spark, who had been licking the scars on his leg from the poacher trap, paused and looked up. "I agree with Rosie," he stated. "It's pretty obvious we aren't welcome here."

"But this place was safe!" Wildflame growled.

"What's the point in fighting?" Nightshade said calmly, limping between them. "It's not like we have a choice, and the forest will be safe from Cyclone's pokémon. At least we would no longer have to hide."

Snowcrystal nodded in silent agreement, though she could sense unease in all the pokémon around her, even from Blazefang. She wondered what the houndour would do now that Cyclone and his army had given up chasing him.

* * *

It was still dark when the group silently made their way out of the cave, shivering miserably in the early morning cold. Redclaw carried the herbs that Streamrose had given them in his mouth. For the second time, he had to carry Stormblade on his back, but this time the scyther was too weak to protest. Most of the pokémon looked much more well-rested than when they had arrived, but the same wasn't true for the injured ones.

Rosie and Spark, however, now seemed much healthier despite their injuries, thanks to the healer's help. Though Snowcrystal knew that Nightshade wasn't ready to travel-most of his wounds weren't serious enough to be much of a problem as long as they had the herbs, but the one in his side still worried her. And Stormblade…well, she knew that there was no way Stormblade should be traveling. The sooner they got to the forest and rested, the better.

Thunder stumbled and nearly fell as she walked out of the cave, and immediately stood up again and started licking one of her wounds, trying to act as if nothing had happened, though Snowcrystal could see her shaking. Over the past few days, it seemed that the infection in some of her wounds had gotten worse, the cuts in her back in particular. During her stay at the caves, Thunder had mostly kept away from the healer and Snowcrystal's group, and Snowcrystal suspected that she simply didn't trust Streamrose and had wanted to be left alone. At some point during that time, however, she had grown weak enough to finally accept medicine from Nightshade, but it hadn't seemed to do much to help the oozing, bleeding wounds.

Snowcrystal glanced at her group of friends, feeling worried for what lay in store for them. In a way, she felt partially responsible for their hardships-after all, her search for Articuno had taken them to these far-off places.

"Snowcrystal?" a voice whispered.

The white growlithe looked up to see Rosie staring at her worriedly. "Er…what is it?" Snowcrystal asked, trying not to sound too distracted.

"You know," Rosie began, "I'm sure things will be better in the forest. Those places are full of prey pokémon!"

"But what about the pokémon who are injured?" Snowcrystal asked the ninetales.

"We can only do our best," Wildflame whispered to her as she passed by, walking on ahead into the bushes. "Moonlight told us the easy way to get out of the canyon was along here."

Snowcrystal glanced up at Stormblade, wondering if the scyther was even conscious. One thing was for sure, she couldn't let the power that had caused his wounds fall into Cyclone's paws. With any luck, the vaporeon's followers would eventually desert him. What did he have to threaten them all with anyway? He was just one pokémon!

Snowcrystal looked up sadly as Wildflame took the lead, letting the others follow slowly after her. Spark nudged her shoulder, and she followed Wildflame reluctantly, glancing worriedly at Stormblade.

"It's not far," Wildflame told the group quietly. "I know how to get there…follow me."

Sadly, Snowcrystal trailed after her, wondering just how much longer Stormblade would be able to last.

* * *

Silverbreeze and the thirty pokémon under her command had waited in the canyon for days. It hadn't been an entirely unpleasant experience-there was plenty of prey here-but Silverbreeze knew that an exhausting journey trying to catch up with Cyclone was waiting for her after two more days. The scyther had not expected to see any sign of Blazefang anywhere, but she was surprised when in the dark of night she was roused by one of the nocturnal army pokémon, who was telling her that he'd spotted an arcanine and some other pokémon from a distance.

Instantly alert, Silverbreeze leapt up and crept through the bushes in the darkness, following the noctowl who had spoken to her. Emerging from the foliage at the top of a rugged cliff, the scyther could see a large arcanine's flame-colored pelt moving through the trees a little ways away. There were other pokémon with him, and they were slowly making their way up a shallow slope. Silverbreeze could not see all of them in the dark, but she could see the white fur of a snow colored growlithe, standing out in the black night.

"That's them," Silverbreeze told the noctowl. "I wonder if the houndour's still with them." She hoped that the bird pokémon wouldn't notice the unease in her voice. Truthfully, she hoped they wouldn't find him. As much as she supported Cyclone's plans to keep the humans away from the pokémon habitats, the idea of using Forbidden Attacks to do so unnerved her greatly.

"I didn't get close enough to see if he was," the noctowl replied, turning his head to preen his feathers. "Go get the others."

* * *

"It's not far now," Rosie whispered from up ahead, peering at the top of the canyon. The ninetales had begun using her injured leg again, but was still limping. Nevertheless, she had been determined to prove herself and climbed ahead of the others to examine the path they would take. "It looks easy to climb up this way," she added, pointing with one of her tails.

Blazefang scrabbled up beside her, his black fur prickling with unease. Even though he felt strong and awake in the moonlight, every flickering shadow unnerved him. _What if there were still enemy pokémon from Cyclone's army lurking about?_

Rosie growled as Blazefang shoved her aside and moved further up the slope. Snowcrystal and Spark appeared beside her, both looking worried. "What is it?" she whispered to the two pokémon.

"Nightshade thinks we're being watched," Snowcrystal whispered.

"He thought that when the canyon pokémon found us," Spark added.

"Then it's probably one of them, making sure we leave," Rosie replied. She turned to see Blazefang darting down the slope past her, coming to a halt in between Wildflame and Redclaw.

"I'm staying in the middle of the group!" he muttered determinedly, digging his claws in the pebbly soil.

"Fine," Rosie muttered. "Be a coward. I-"

"Look…" Spark whispered, and Rosie could feel his fur beginning to sharpen into spines where his side was brushing against her. She darted a few steps away quickly.

Lifting her head, Rosie could now see dark shapes slinking through the trees and rocks on the slope opposite to them. Glancing down into the canyon, her heart sank when she realized that the river was calm there-these pokémon would have no trouble at all crossing. Looking closely at the nearest pokémon, Rosie could make out the sleek shape of the scyther she had seen before-the one from Cyclone's army. Growling, she pawed at the ground, longing to give her a taste of her strongest ember attack.

"Keep going!" Redclaw whispered. "Don't let them know we've spotted them."

Rosie turned and plodded up the slope, worry filling her mind. She didn't like turning her back on a dangerous enemy.

"What do we do about them?" she heard Wildflame whisper from behind.

"If we make it out of the canyon," Redclaw replied quietly, "it'll be easier to fight them off."

"We can't attack that many!" Wildflame gasped.

"We can launch our attacks and run for it once we're on high ground," Redclaw whispered back. "It's better than trying to fight here, and it's probably the best chance we've got."

"Run for it with _Stormblade_?" Snowcrystal sounded disbelieving.

Rosie felt a wave of anger rush over her. _Why had that selfish leader driven them out? What harm were they causing the canyon pokémon?_She remembered with a twinge of guilt that they had been the ones to unknowingly lead Cyclone to the canyon pokémon's home, yet at least no one had gotten hurt. _But a lot of their prey would be gone after the army passed through…_

Rosie heard a growl of annoyance from behind and turned to see that Nightshade had stopped. Spark was glaring at him-the heracross was staring right at their enemies.

"What are you doing?" the jolteon hissed. "Come on, keep going!"

"I'll be back," Nightshade replied simply before flying off into the night.

Rosie's eyes widened in shock-he was heading toward the other side of the canyon-where that scyther and her followers were! "Come back here, you idiot!" she growled after him, but Nightshade had already vanished.

* * *

Nightshade took great care to make sure that he would not be noticed by the pokémon who were making their way down the slope, closing the gap between themselves and his friends. He carefully landed at the top of the cliff directly above the scyther. He could see that she only had about thirty pokémon with her, though he knew that was a number far too great for the others to fight. He had to hope that his plan would work.

There were several large boulders along the cliff side, and Nightshade scanned the area until his gaze rested on a single one. It was larger than most, and rested on a wide ledge a little ways down the cliff. Nightshade quietly flew down behind it, peering around to watch Cyclone's pokémon slipping quietly toward the river.

Looking at the boulder, Nightshade was fairly certain he could move it. Knowing he didn't have much time, the heracross ignored the pain lancing across his side and began pushing against the boulder.

* * *

Silverbreeze glared worriedly at the group of pokémon on the slope across from them. She had half-hoped they'd noticed her and the others and run off. She just wanted to get back to the army and leave the Forbidden Attack behind. Yet the group still climbed at the same pace. Irritated, she continued the march down to the river. It was much more likely they'd be spotted once they entered the water.

A deafening crash sounded from the cliffs above, making Silverbreeze whirl around in surprise. In the darkness, she could see the massive shape of a boulder hurtling down the side of the canyon, bringing several other rocks with it. She watched in awe as the cascading mass of boulders brought more and more rocks hurtling down toward them.

Without wasting any more time, Silverbreeze spread her wings and launched herself into the air. She wasn't alone-the noctowl and the other flying type in the group-a swellow-did the same. Silverbreeze could only watch as her followers scattered in panic, filling the air with cries of fear and pain as the rocks and dirt struck them, launching them into the river or sending them rolling down the slope. A few lucky pokémon managed to scramble out of the way of the danger and flee into the night. Silverbreeze didn't expect to see them again. They were probably taking this opportunity to free themselves from Cyclone's army, as many had joined unwillingly.

The shower of rocks went on for several more terrifying seconds, and then all was still, save for a few last rocks rolling down toward the river. Silverbreeze watched as many terrified pokémon broke the surface of the water, paddling toward shore in a panic and rushing away. A few unlucky members of the army lay floating in the river-half crushed and obviously dead. Silverbreeze quickly flew to the highest point of the nearby cliff, hearing the startled cries of pokémon as they fled into the darkness.

"Silverbreeze, should we bring them back?" the noctowl asked her, getting no response. "Silverbreeze?"

"They'll have scattered," the scyther responded, her voice as cold as ice. "Bring back those you can, but leave them if they try to run. We don't want a fight." She knew that the pokémon, most of them at least, would want to get away and not have to be sent into danger again by Cyclone. She couldn't blame them-even though Cyclone trusted her, seeing him let Solus torture a pokémon for amusement had drastically changed her opinions of the vaporeon. _At least he's fighting to teach humans a lesson,_ she thought to herself, _that's something to fight for after they cut down our territory._

"What should we do about the houndour?" the swellow asked her.

"Nothing," Silverbreeze snapped. "We go back to Cyclone and tell him there's no sign of him."

"You mean…_lie_?" the bird pokémon responded. "But what if Solus-"

"Cyclone trusts me!" Silverbreeze growled. "As long as you keep quiet about it, he won't question me. There are too many in the houndour's group-they'd overpower us if we tried to capture him now…but we can't exactly tell Cyclone we saw him but didn't manage to bring him back, can we?"

The swellow looked uncertain. "But…but what about the others in our group who-"

"Accidents happen," Silverbreeze replied, turning away from the cliff edge. "We can start following Cyclone now. We'll be able to travel less and rest more, since he won't be expecting us to catch up until a little later."

As the swellow muttered his agreement, Silverbreeze paid him no attention. She was thinking about the army. Though she didn't agree with Cyclone's methods, the vaporeon was right-it was all for the greater good.

* * *

Snowcrystal watched as a panic-stricken mightyena pulled itself out of the river and dashed away through the foliage. _They just separated…like they're running away from something…something other than the rocks…_ Snowcrystal remembered what Blazefang had said about Cyclone forcing pokémon to join him, and wondered what they were afraid of. _Surely they were free now, and they didn't have to worry?_

Her thoughts were interrupted as Nightshade landed beside the group, looking dazed. Snowcrystal wondered if pushing the big rock down had made any of his wounds worse.

"You'd better thank him," Rosie growled at Blazefang. "It was _you_ they were after!"

Nightshade wasn't paying attention. His eyes were on the bodies of the two dead pokémon as they floated down the river. "I…I didn't want to kill them…" he whispered sadly.

"But it was necessary!" Rosie cried. "And they deserved it for joining Cyclone!"

_They didn't have a choice!_ Snowcrystal thought fiercely, digging her claws into the dirt.

"It was either them or Stormblade…" Wildflame told Nightshade, "and the rest of us forced to serve that lunatic."

"I know," Nightshade replied quietly, but Snowcrystal could sense the sadness in his voice. She knew he was trying to hide what he really felt. "Come on," he told the others, "let's keep going. The forest isn't far."

Snowcrystal followed after him, not saying a word as she climbed until they reached the top of the canyon. Seeing the leafy trees of the forest not far away, she tried to feel a bit more hopeful. There they could rest some more…but what would they do after that?

"I hope there's someone in that forest who can help us," she whispered, seeing Spark walk up beside her.

"With any luck, there will be," he replied. "At least it's free from Cyclone's pokémon."

Snowcrystal nodded in agreement, but she didn't feel any better. What would they do about Stormblade? And Articuno? And would Cyclone cause even more damage elsewhere? The young growlithe sighed, knowing that none of these questions could be answered.

* * *

Blazefang found the trek over to the forest to be easier than he expected. He felt light and almost happy, knowing that one of his biggest problems had vanished-Cyclone really had left, and those whom he'd sent to track him down had all scattered. Of course, several problems still remained-his pack was still with Cyclone, his clan still waiting for him, and of course…Shadowflare. Yet even those problems seemed small now that he no longer had to fear for his life. He wasn't quite sure what he would do now-he figured that the best thing to do would be to return to the mountain, back to Firedash and the clan.

_Maybe…_ he thought, _maybe with Shadowflare I can overthrow her… NO!_ He fiercely shook the thought from his mind. He didn't need to be a leader, and he didn't need Shadowflare!

Sighing, he walked after the others, knowing that he was still too exhausted to make such a long journey back to the mountain now. He would rest with this group of pokémon in the forest, then he and Wildflame would leave.

As the group reached the outer fringes of the forest, Blazefang paused to give the air a quick sniff. It smelled damp and full of the scents of many pokémon, some he didn't recognize. It seemed like there would be plenty of prey, though Blazefang wasn't used to hunting in a forest.

He followed the pokémon a little ways further until they came to a wide clearing. Redclaw helped Stormblade get on the ground and set about making nests out of moss and ferns.

"I'll go hunt!" Spark volunteered, his eyes bright with anticipation. Blazefang casually remembered overhearing someone say that the scyther, Stormblade, had first taught Spark to hunt in a forest.

"I'll go with you," Snowcrystal said quickly, following Spark out into the trees.

"Idiot…" Blazefang mumbled under his breath. "You won't catch anything with white fur like that!"

The houndour jumped up as Thunder stumbled into the clearing. Growling, he backed away, well out of range of the scyther in case she attacked. She had been the last one to arrive, as the others had wisely let her trail behind them at her own pace. He was disappointed she hadn't collapsed.

Thunder didn't seem to have noticed him at all, and simply lay down near a clump of berry bushes without bothering to make a nest or even clear away any sticks or dry leaves. He could scent a very strong, sickly smell coming from her, and wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Walking away from Thunder, Blazefang cleared a place on the forest floor next to a tall oak tree. He was glad that none of the other pokémon had tried to chase him off yet-they knew as well as he did that he could be on his own now, but he wanted rest and protection first.

"Any sign of dangerous pokémon around here?" Redclaw was whispering to Rosie, who had been exploring through a bit of the forest nearby. "I know there's not any near this clearing, but I want to find more of these herbs that Streamrose gave me. Did you smell anything that could be dangerous?"

"No," Rosie replied, shaking her head. "Just prey and forest."

Blazefang sighed, letting their conversation fade into the background. He had more important things to think of; he didn't need to listen to a pair of silly pokémon who'd dragged themselves into the growlithe's quest for Articuno for no reason at all. He failed to see why they would be interested in helping a clan they would never see, let alone know.

It wasn't long, however, before another one of the pokémon distracted him. Nightshade, still looking shocked, headed into the forest alone without attracting the attention of the others. Blazefang knew he'd be back, but he couldn't help wondering if he was still thinking about the dead pokémon in the river. _They had to die because we had no other choice,_ he thought to himself in annoyance, _why can't the stupid heracross accept that?_

Blazefang rolled his eyes at the worried whispers still being exchanged between Rosie and Redclaw. With all these pokémon around, he wondered how he'd get any rest at all. At least they'd been quieter in the _cave_!

The houndour looked up as Snowcrystal appeared from the bushes with Spark, who had a taillow in his mouth. The jolteon passed the dead bird pokémon to Snowcrystal, who walked with it over to Stormblade.

Blazefang let out a low growl. "Why don't you eat that yourself?" he asked the white fire type.

Snowcrystal looked at him with wide eyes and set the taillow down. "I want to give it to Stormblade," she explained. Her tone sounded firm, but he could tell that she was uneasy with the way he was staring at her.

"He doesn't need it!" Blazefang snarled. "Give it to those who can use the energy!"

"Relax, Blazefang," Redclaw told him from where he was sitting beside Rosie. "We're only trying to help Stormblade."

Blazefang flattened his ears against his head. "I just don't find killing a perfectly healthy pokémon to feed a dying scyther morally right!" he growled, stalking away from the main group.

"They're _prey_ pokémon!" Spark called after him. "They'd kill _us_ if they could! Survival of the fittest!"

"Then why is Stormblade still alive?" Blazefang yelled over his shoulder. Grumbling to himself, he turned his back on the others another time and loped away into the trees.

Once out of sight, he slowed down and let the scents of the forest wash over him. Even though he was alone in a strange place, he didn't feel like he wanted to go back to the group that night.

Alone, he couldn't help but remember that his problems really were far from over. He would never see Boneclaw again, and he had journeyed so far for nothing. _Or was it for nothing?_Blazefang still felt half tempted to use Shadowflare to overthrow Firedash, but he quickly drove the thought from his mind. He would _never_ use Shadowflare again. Not after what he'd seen it do.

Shaking, Blazefang lay down and closed his eyes, hoping for sleep to overcome him. Would the urge to use Shadowflare ever leave him? _No…_ he thought, _not unless the Forbidden Attack is passed on to someone else._ With a jolt of horror it dawned on him fully what a horrible mistake his journey had been. He should never have taken the stone…never found it in the first place, but now that he had, he would never be rid of the Forbidden Attack's dark power.

He was cursed until the day he died.

_To be continued..._


	41. A Place of Rest or a Place of Danger?

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 41-** **A Place of Rest or a Place of Danger?**

Sometime in the late morning, Blazefang woke. Glancing around in confusion for a moment, the houndour stood up shakily, leaves crunching beneath his paws. Suddenly remembering where he was, he clawed the ground in annoyance. He wasn't quite ready to go back to the white growlithe and her friends, but he wanted to see if any of them had brought back prey.

He had started to head back to the group when he stopped himself. "What do I need them for?" he growled aloud, turning and walking deeper into the forest. "I can catch some for myself!" He was feeling rather annoyed that he had even considered asking them for help.

The houndour paused for any sound or scent of prey, but all the strange forest scents confused him, making focusing on just one scent very difficult. Blazefang shuddered; he wasn't used to hunting among all these trees. "There are other houndour who live in forests that can do it," he whispered to himself. "So it shouldn't be too hard!"

Blazefang moved forward as silently as he could, scanning the area ahead for prey. He soon spotted a starly, but as he edged closer, the grass around him swished, sending the pokémon flying upward with a frightened squawk.

Growling to himself, the houndour walked further into the trees, knowing that the bird would probably have scared off any other prey nearby. After a while, he slowed down, moving forward silently again and searching for sight or smell of a meal.

As he crept further, a familiar scent filled his nostrils-one that he was used to by now, and that he didn't like. _Scyther_. Blazefang tensed, looking around through the screen of leaves and foliage, remembering the way Thunder had ran at him so quickly when he had first found Snowcrystal's group after running from Cyclone. She had been _injured_, and he didn't want to think about what a healthy scyther could do. Fearfully he began backing away, staring around at the green scenery as if he expected a scyther to jump out at him from anywhere.

As he was backing up, something cannoned into him from behind, knocking him to the ground. Blazefang turned over quickly, but instead of a scyther, he only saw Spark, the growlithe's jolteon friend.

"Scared you!" the jolteon said with a grin. "Not so tough without your pack are you?"

"You idiot!" Blazefang growled, leaping up indignantly. "You've just scared off all the prey, you know that!?"

Spark seemed only mildly concerned. "Oh, so what! There's plenty more deeper into the woods. I'm an experienced forest hunter you know," he added proudly.

Blazefang bared his teeth in a snarl as Spark pushed past him. With any luck, he thought, the scyther who'd left the scent behind would make a tasty snack of the jolteon. Chuckling to himself, the houndour lay his head on his paws as he watched Spark blunder after a zigzagoon who'd run across his path. The frightened pokémon was pelting away toward a thick clump of bracken, but just before it reached it, Spark caught up to it and leapt upon it, pressing it down onto the forest floor and biting down swiftly on its neck. Blazefang's eyes widened in surprise. "You caught that?" he cried in disbelief, running over to the jolteon.

"I told you I was a perfect forest hunter!" Spark replied, beaming. "And I bet you thought I couldn't do it! You know what? I might just give this to Stormblade-I know it makes you mad!"

Blazefang was about to retort that Stormblade hadn't been able to eat much of what anyone had been bringing him for the past few days, but stopped himself when he noticed the bushes behind Spark rustling. He began backing away, and Spark, still looking smug, didn't even bother to ask why.

It was only when the sound of something right behind him met Spark's ears that the jolteon whirled around in fright-just as a forest scyther stepped out right in front of him.

Blazefang could see that Spark was simply standing still in surprise. Ignoring him, the houndour turned to run, only to be confronted by a second scyther that reminded him a bit of Thunder. This one had several deep scars covering its face, and one of the pointed spikes on its head had been broken off. Blazefang wished he could fire a flamethrower in its face, but he knew that would be a bad idea for several reasons, as would trying to run away. He decided that being submissive was the only other option-he just hoped that the scyther didn't want to eat him. Even if he were able to run faster than a scyther, Blazefang wasn't sure he would have been able to make himself do it-his paws were firmly rooted to the ground in fear. He was used to being afraid of Thunder, but these scyther weren't just strong…they _weren't_ injured.

"What are you doing here?" growled the one in front of Spark, and though Blazefang was staring at the ground and not looking in that direction, he guessed from its voice that that scyther was female. He didn't dare glance up at the one staring down at him-he was too afraid it would attack, though he did realize that if it had wanted to eat him, it would have killed him already.

"We're just trying to hunt!" Spark blurted out. "You see, I-"

"This is our forest," the scyther replied icily. "You can't hunt here."

"What are you talking about?" Spark replied. "No one predator owns the forest!"

"Which means you don't either," the scyther snarled. "Get out."

The scyther nearest to Blazefang moved forward threateningly, and Blazefang backed away, wondering if it was safe to leave yet, or whether the scyther would attack them once they turned their backs.

"Spark?" a voice from behind them called. Blazefang turned to see Redclaw pushing his way through the bushes, followed by Wildflame and Snowcrystal. Seeing the scyther, Redclaw growled, the long tan-colored fur of his mane rising along his neck. "Leave him alone," he snarled, walking forward with the other two canines at his side.

To Blazefang's surprise, neither scyther looked intimidated by the fire types, and watched calmly as the three approached.

"Redclaw," Snowcrystal began. "Do you think those scyther could help Stormblade?"

Blazefang felt like rolling his eyes. These scyther were threatening them! And what could a scyther do to help heal wounds? They were only good at hurting things!

Without waiting for the arcanine's answer, the white growlithe padded forward and stood in front of the scyther. Blazefang looked up and watched carefully, not sure how they would react.

Snowcrystal stared up at the much taller pokémon, feeling suddenly vulnerable despite her type advantage over the scyther. This pokémon was much bigger and stronger than she was. Quivering, Snowcrystal tried to look her in the eyes. "Listen," she began hesitantly. "We have a scyther friend who's hurt, and we-"

"Why should we care?" the scyther replied. "That scyther is not a part of our swarm!" Snowcrystal could see the scyther's body tense, as if the only thing keeping the pokémon from leaping at her was the fact that she and her companion were outnumbered.

Snowcrystal glanced at Redclaw, who looked back at her helplessly. She knew that he wanted to leave, but if these scyther wanted to chase them out of the forest, where else could they go? She glanced at the other scyther, the mean-looking one who looked seconds away from attacking Blazefang, wondering if she should even attempt to talk to him. Before she had a chance to make a decision, however, she heard the bushes in front of them rustle, and another scyther stepped out.

Alarmed, Snowcrystal was about to run back to Redclaw, thinking that the other scyther in the swarm had heard the commotion and come to help their companions. However, she quickly realized that not only was this third scyther alone, but that there was something odd about him. As he came out of the bushes into plain sight-it was easy to see what it was-this scyther was missing an arm. She stared in surprise, but that didn't last long as she was distracted by the reaction of the other two scyther, who had turned to glare at him.

"What do you want?" the one closest to Snowcrystal growled.

"I think we should help other scyther," the newcomer replied calmly, though Snowcrystal could see that he was looking at the other two with an air of fear.

"Why should we help a loner?" the scarred scyther asked him calmly, as if waiting to see if the new scyther had any sort of logical reason.

"They may not be from our swarm, but they're still a scyther," the third scyther replied. "I say we should help. These pokémon are weak," he added, gesturing to Snowcrystal and the others with his head. "They couldn't do much harm to our swarm anyway, but they do outnumber you two. I wouldn't try chasing them away."

The scarred scyther rounded on him. Looking at them both facing each other, Snowcrystal noticed that the scyther with the scarred face was taller than the other, though not quite as tall as Stormblade. "Don't tell me what to do," the scarred scyther growled, "unless you think you can win a battle with only one blade."

The smaller scyther seemed to get the message, and immediately backed off, a sad and scared look in his eyes.

"Get out of here!" the female shouted, and the scyther slinked away into the bushes and disappeared.

Snowcrystal backed up as the two remaining scyther faced them, knowing that now they could not afford a fight, especially when there were four members of the group already injured. She was wondering whether or not to try and run when a fourth scyther emerged from the trees near where the other two were standing.

Snowcrystal could see that this scyther was old, but he was not alone. There were a few young scyther who followed him into the clearing, all looking agitated at the sight of the strange pokémon.

"What's going on here?" the old scyther demanded, staring straight at Redclaw as if he assumed that the arcanine was the leader of the band of travelers.

It was the scyther Snowcrystal had tried to talk to who answered first. "They were trespassing," she explained. "They hunted in our territory and killed a zigzagoon." The scyther bent down toward the carcass and picked it up, tossing it toward where her companion, or mate, was standing.

"They haven't crossed into our territory yet," the old scyther pointed out.

"So, you 'own the forest', huh?" Spark scoffed, but was quickly silenced by a glare from Redclaw.

The scyther ignored him. "They were close enough, Skyscythe" she retorted. "Let's just get rid of them now."

"We're just passing through…" Wildflame told the scyther. "That is, after we've rested for a bit."

"But there are two scyther with us," Snowcrystal added. "You might be able to help them…somehow…we just want a safe place to stay, and this forest is the safest place we've found. But…can you at least try-"

"Yeah, I think those scyther must _really_know how to heal Forbidden Attack wounds," Blazefang muttered sarcastically as he backed up close to Wildflame. "Let's get out of here."

"Go on then!" the scarred scyther scoffed.

"They won't be safe out in the forest," one of the young scyther whispered loud enough for the travelers to hear. "All the pokémon who've moved here since the old forest burned down...and well, some of them are dangerous. And we've had to remind every one of them that we were here first."

Snowcrystal felt a wave of fear rush over her-they had left the four injured pokémon all alone! Before she could say anything, Redclaw decided to speak.

"I suppose things must be hard for you then," he told the group of scyther carefully, knowing very well that now it was his group who was outnumbered. "We only want a safe place to stay until our friends recover or we find another suitable resting place. If you let us stay in your territory, those of us who can will catch prey for you. Lots of it," he added quickly, and Snowcrystal saw him stiffen as he waited for the scyther's answer.

"Why should we trust you?" one of the scyther asked warily.

"Our injured friends would be where you can see them," Redclaw replied carefully. "At your mercy. I can assure you we wouldn't do anything that would put them in danger. We have no interest in harming any of you…we've seen enough of senseless fighting."

Most of the scyther looked uncertain, and the two that Snowcrystal had first seen looked ready to slice Redclaw apart. Yet the old one, Skyscythe, who Snowcrystal thought might be the leader of the swarm, looked back up at the arcanine with calmness in his eyes. "Show us the scyther you were talking about," he said quietly. "Then we will see."

Redclaw promptly led the way back to where the others were resting, while Snowcrystal trailed behind, trying not to let her fear of these strangers show. The group of scyther were walking around them without fear-most of them seeming curious about the odd band of strangers. She heard Blazefang's pawsteps as he crept up beside her and whispered in her ear, "you do realize that what Redclaw said was rather foolish, right? If Thunder goes berserk, he basically just sentenced those four to their deaths!"

Snowcrystal shivered. As much as she hated to admit it, Blazefang had a point.

* * *

Upon reaching the clearing where the others were resting, Snowcrystal realized with mild surprise that Thunder was gone. She couldn't quite identify which way the scyther had left, but at the moment she was mainly focused on wondering why. Not knowing whether to be relieved or worried, she walked beside Redclaw who headed to where Stormblade lay.

Stormblade was laying on his side, looking almost as still as a dead pokémon. Snowcrystal was about to move closer when Rosie growled and backed away as one of the strange scyther came into view.

"Don't worry," Redclaw told her, though the uncertainty in his voice was not quite hidden, "they're going to take us to a safer place."

"Where's Thunder?" Snowcrystal whispered to Rosie as two of the scyther, one of them Skyscythe, followed Redclaw.

"She wandered off somewhere-I don't know!" Rosie whispered back, sounding agitated.

Wildflame approached the two of them, looking worriedly at the scyther. "We can find Thunder later," she whispered quickly.

Snowcrystal turned to see that a few of the other scyther had started staring at Stormblade in either horror or morbid curiosity.

"He's definitely not a scyther from anywhere around here," one of them muttered. "And I don't think he's from the old forest either."

"Should we try and help somehow?" one of them asked, sounding in shock.

"No, he's as good as dead," another replied casually.

Snowcrystal peered at Stormblade, seeing no response from him. She doubted that he was even aware of the other scyther nearby him.

"We just want to be taken to a safe place," Redclaw told the scyther. "And remember, we are willing to hunt for you. We can take care of Stormblade ourselves."

Snowcrystal waited to see what Skyscythe would say, hoping with all her might that he wouldn't refuse-she didn't want to wander around in the wilderness in search of shelter anymore.

The old scyther looked at Stormblade, then at Redclaw. "We have to ask our leader," he said simply, walking ahead. "Follow us."

_So he's not the leader…_ Snowcrystal thought to herself, trailing after the others as they hesitantly began following the scyther. Redclaw looked at Stormblade and then carefully picked him up. Snowcrystal hoped he was unconscious, otherwise that would certainly be painful. Looking at Rosie, who was beside her, Snowcrystal knew that the ninetales felt the same way she did about walking into a scyther swarm's territory. This was certainly _not_ the sort of 'safety' she had expected to find in the forest.

* * *

As they moved through the trees, Snowcrystal found it harder and harder to see the scyther they were supposed to be following. For one, the scyther were much faster than anyone in their group, and further on the foliage got thicker, hiding the green colored pokémon from view.

Snowcrystal was following Wildflame and Spark, who were ahead of the others, and seemed to be having just as hard a time at following the scyther as she was. She knew that Blazefang, Rosie, and Nightshade were just behind her, though she didn't know how far behind Redclaw, who had to carry Stormblade, was.

As she followed Spark, her thoughts kept drifting back to Thunder, and whether it was really wise to leave without her knowing. _We can go back and get her once we find a safe place…_she told herself silently.

After a while of running through thick foliage, which made Snowcrystal rather uncomfortable and claustrophobic, the scyther ahead of them stopped.

"Stay right here," one of them warned the group, and darted off into the trees.

"This doesn't look like the home of a scyther swarm to me," Rosie whispered to Snowcrystal, knowing that the other scyther were around them somewhere, watching. "It just looks like any other part of the forest!"

"I don't think this is where their caves…or…I mean, whatever scyther live in…are, Rosie," Snowcrystal whispered back. "I don't think they'd want us that close-"

She broke off immediately as the scyther who had left returned, followed by another, much taller and stronger looking scyther. This, Snowcrystal guessed, was the leader.

"That must be the one in charge," Rosie whispered to her, echoing her thoughts.

"Yep," Spark whispered to the two of them. "In a scyther swarm, the biggest and meanest bosses everyone else around-OW! Hey!" The jolteon turned and growled at Rosie, who had swatted him on the head with a paw.

The leader scyther looked over the newcomers warily, as if analyzing whether or not they were a possible threat to the swarm. Snowcrystal crouched closer down to the ground, trying not to seem threatening, although some part of her told her that she was far too small and slow to be any threat to the scyther. She glanced around, realizing that Redclaw still hadn't caught up with them.

"Where are the injured scyther?" the leader asked, sounding as if she was suspicious at the fact that there weren't any scyther with the group.

Snowcrystal froze, wondering what this scyther would do if she thought that she and her friends had been lying. "They-" Snowcrystal began worriedly, but she didn't get any further as, thankfully, Redclaw pushed his way through the bushes at that moment and set Stormblade's limp form down behind the others.

The leader made her way past the others toward Stormblade, the old scyther, Skyscythe, following.

"I think we should try to give him some sort of protection," he told his leader. "But I really don't like the idea of bringing strangers so close."

"Protect him?" another scyther replied, walking closer to Stormblade. "The best thing we could do is to kill him and get it over with. Then these pokémon can leave."

"Look, _we_ want shelter too!" Blazefang growled. The scyther glared at him, but to Snowcrystal's surprise, the houndour didn't back down and returned his glare.

The lead scyther was leaning over Stormblade, peering at his injuries with an air of curiosity. Finally she straightened up and looked at the group of travelers, seeming completely unafraid of the fire types clustered around her. "He's a strong scyther to have lasted this long," she said after a moment. "I don't know if there is any hope for him, but I will let him stay with the rest of us if you bring us prey, but you fire types…and you, jolteon and heracross, must stay away, and go no further than here."

Snowcrystal opened her mouth to speak when one of the other scyther interrupted.

"Let him in? And let those strangers stay on our territory?" he shouted. "But most of them are fire types!"

"They're far too weak from traveling to do much harm," the leader replied. "And they aren't from the old forest, I can tell. And we can use the extra prey they bring. I can send some scyther to make sure they aren't taking too much for themselves."

"But we need someone to watch over Stormblade!" Snowcrystal cried. She didn't trust the scyther to do anything other than find him a place to stay and leave him there. "And Nightshade is injured as well…" She didn't know whether or not to mention Thunder, but she decided to keep quiet about it for now.

"All right then," the leader replied. "Heracross are not our enemies. He may come, as well as you and the ninetales. But no others."

Snowcrystal glanced at Rosie, who looked somewhat nervous. The scyther leader had purposely picked out the two weakest fire types in the group, and Snowcrystal could understand Rosie's worry. _They're only trying to protect themselves…_ Snowcrystal tried to assure herself.

"I'll have to carry him," Redclaw told the leader, pointing his muzzle to the barely conscious-or possibly unconscious-Stormblade. Snowcrystal felt worried-Stormblade had never been this bad for so long… "And there is another scyther in our group as well," the arcanine added, distracting Snowcrystal from her thoughts. "I can go get her…after-"

"Then follow us," the lead scyther replied icily, obviously a bit wary of Redclaw, who was probably the most powerful fire type in the group. She turned away and headed deeper into the forest with the other scyther.

"Come on," Nightshade whispered, nudging Rosie, who looked as if she were in a trance.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Rosie whispered as she walked beside Nightshade and Snowcrystal as they followed Redclaw.

"Yes," Snowcrystal told her. "They don't want to hurt us…they just don't want their families and friends to get hurt."

Nervously, Rosie just nodded and followed Redclaw through the trees. Snowcrystal couldn't even see the scyther anymore-she was just following Redclaw. After a few moments they emerged into a large clearing, with a pond in the center. Snowcrystal could see several scyther standing in the water or gathered around it-all of which stared at them curiously as they emerged through the trees. Snowcrystal ignored them and watched Redclaw set Stormblade down near some bushes at the edge of the clearing, where he lay unmoving.

"Leave," the leader scyther firmly told Redclaw, who, quickly but regretfully, turned and headed back through the bushes.

Snowcrystal and the others watched as a strange scyther wandered nearer-a female with unusually dark green armor and a pointier snout. She was smaller than most of the other scyther-Snowcrystal realized that this scyther must be even younger than she was.

"So you let them stay?" she asked the group who had brought the travelers back. Unlike most of the others who had just seen them, she didn't seem wary or afraid, just curious.

"What does it look like?" the scarred scyther who had been displeased with the idea from the start growled at her.

Ignoring the two, the lead scyther looked up as another scyther from somewhere Snowcrystal couldn't see called for her. "This is the place you will rest. Stay here," she warned the newcomers. "Go to the pond only for water, and then come back. You aren't allowed any farther. And remember, there will always be someone watching you to make sure you do not disobey." She ran off, leaving the others with the small group of scyther who had led them there.

Then that group split up, going their separate ways and giving wary glances at the travelers. "Remember…" the scarred scyther hissed as he walked past them. "If you harm any of the scyther here, your friend will die!" Then he, too, ran off, leaving only the small scyther who was still staring curiously at them.

"Hey Bladewing, who are they?" another voice called, and an even smaller male scyther darted up to them faster than Snowcrystal would have thought possible, making her step back in surprise. "They aren't scyther!" he continued. "So why are they here?"

"The Leader said they could stay," Bladewing answered. "They're going to get more food for us."

"They don't look like they can," her friend growled. "And that's a heracross-heracross don't even eat meat!"

"We're not the ones who will be hunting," Nightshade told him calmly, making the young scyther glare. Nightshade backed away, not because of the scyther's reaction, but because he seemed nervous about being around so many pokémon of a carnivorous species. "I'm going to head into the forest…" he told Snowcrystal. "I won't be far, and I'll be back to see Stormblade-"

"Is this the scyther they were talking about?" the little scyther cried. Snowcrystal turned to see him standing over Stormblade. "I…I don't think shelter is going to do him much good…" As if horrified by the sight, he darted away.

Nightshade moved toward Stormblade as Bladewing, the other small one, inched closer, when another, fully grown scyther stood in front of Stormblade, facing her. "Stay away from them!" he ordered, leading her away.

Nightshade sighed as the two walked away. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…" he muttered, trying to ignore the looks he got from scyther who were passing through the clearing.

"Well, it's better than being out in the forest if there's dangerous pokémon around…" Snowcrystal replied, realizing how lucky they had been to have rested so near a scyther territory-the scents had probably scared off some of the aggressive pokémon.

"Yeah, but what about Thunder?" Rosie asked. "I don't think things will go well if they decide to bring _her_ here!"

Secretly, Snowcrystal agreed, though she was worried about Thunder being all alone. Where had she run off to, and why? She paused, letting Nightshade and Rosie talk quietly while pushing away her thoughts as she heard a few other scyther moving out into the forest somewhere behind her. They were talking, and she caught a few of their words.

"There's still not much prey," one of them was saying. "Too many other predators here now…"

"This forest is still much better than the last one-there were too many humans nearby," the other replied, "and did you see that fire when it burned? I saw the smoke-it's a good thing we were able to move long before that happened."

Before she could hear the other's reply, their voices faded into the distance. "The forest that burned down…that was where they lived before?" She thought of all the pokémon who had lost their homes due to Blazefang's Shadowflare attack and shuddered. She didn't want to remind herself that the pokémon who had caused all that was traveling with them.

She briefly heard Nightshade get up and leave to go back in the forest, and Rosie lay down quietly before yet another scyther approached them. Snowcrystal tensed-not liking the idea of being stared at by strange pokémon, but relaxed a bit when she realized that she had seen this scyther before-it was the one that was missing an arm-the one who had stood up for them before.

The scyther was holding a spearow which he dropped down in front of Rosie, who sniffed it cautiously.

"Aren't we supposed to be hunting for you?" the ninetales asked him, looking puzzled.

"Yes, but I thought you would be tired and I…" the scyther trailed off as he noticed some of the others approaching them rapidly. From the way he acted, Snowcrystal could tell that he was afraid.

She backed into the bushes as one of the scyther ran up to Rosie and snatched the spearow away from her, making the ninetales jump away in startled surprise.

"You didn't catch that on our territory, did you, Darkfang?" one of the scyther asked, and Darkfang-which Snowcrystal realized was the scyther who had brought them the prey, stepped back a pace.

"I…"

"You did?" a second scyther growled. "You can't waste our prey on them! They're supposed to catch it themselves!"

Darkfang was silent and didn't reply.

"I don't understand why you care so much about these pokémon when they could be a threat…" the other scyther mumbled, but Snowcrystal could see that a few of the scyther with him didn't seem hostile or threatened by her or her friends.

"Sorry…" Darkfang mumbled at last, staring at the ground.

The other scyther paused for a moment, and then added, "oh, and I wanted to remind you-the next time you're on guard-pay attention! A luxray strayed into the territory near where you were supposed to be watching last night!" Darkfang flinched, and the other scyther gave him a stern glare. "Make sure you don't fall asleep again or start watching for ice birds in the sky anymore."

"You still don't believe me?" Darkfang replied. "I did see it that day! I-"

Snowcrystal's eyes widened in shock, but the scyther in the small group just gave Darkfang a disapproving look and then turned and left, some giving Stormblade a curious look as they walked by quickly.

Snowcrystal turned to Darkfang, a look of surprise plastered over her face. Rosie, next to her, looked a lot like how Snowcrystal felt-awed and disbelieving. After all this time, they may have just found a clue to finding Articuno. "You mean…what did you see? Did it look like…" she began, but Darkfang was heading away, probably without even hearing her. Forgetting the rules the scyther swarm had set for them, Snowcrystal ran after him. "Wait up!" she cried. "I need to talk."

"Leave me alone," Darkfang remarked, before changing direction and darting into the trees-away from the other scyther.

Snowcrystal paused a moment and then chased after him, her heart pounding._I have to find him…I have to find him and ask him about Articuno!_

* * *

Under the warm light of the sun and the clouds that floated slowly across the sky, Scytheclaw stood peering into the round pool that was formed by the river right beside the tall cliffs. The scizor had flown down beside it, staring into its clear depths and at the small statues of pokémon that adorned the rock that stood above the water in its center.

Scytheclaw had always found this to be a peaceful place, and now he wanted peace more than anything. It seemed that after the army had left and pokémon had seen them, more and more of his clan were talking about it…and beginning to realize that he had been wrong. Very wrong.

Aside from his most loyal members, the pokémon were doubting in him. And a great many wanted a new leader…Moonlight the umbreon seemed to be the one many wanted to take his place. Scytheclaw felt worried and afraid-he was injured-he couldn't fight if they tried to overthrow him, and he wondered if inflicting harsh punishments on them had really been wise-now that he was in a state of weakness it was likely they could take out bottled-up anger on him. If only he had managed to kill Nightshade and install more fear in them…but would that have been the best way to go about it? Scytheclaw had no idea of what the best way to be a leader was…and it was this thought that scared him most of all. This leadership was all he had. If he lost it, everything would be over.

Worriedly, the scizor turned his gaze to look deeper into the pool, at the arcanine statue that lay beneath the waters. Looking at it, he thought he saw a peculiar glint off of the arcanine's fangs. Curious, he peered closer, moving around until he saw the sparkle of something again.

After a moment's hesitation, Scytheclaw waded into the water. He shuddered-the water had always felt strange to him as a scizor-he had loved it as a scyther but now he always felt as if his body was too heavy and he was likely to drown. He hated that feeling.

He hesitated as he neared the deeper part of the water, where the arcanine statue lay. As he peered into the depths, he thought he saw the shimmer of something blue near the arcanine's mouth.

"Scytheclaw?" a curious voice sounded from behind him, making him turn his head.

The scizor spotted the zangoose-one of his now few truly loyal followers-standing on a rock near the pool. Scytheclaw immediately got out of the water, pointing to the arcanine statue. "Go under the water!" he ordered. "There's something strange about that statue."

Puzzled, but unwilling to disobey in case he anger his leader, the zangoose slid into the water cautiously and vanished underneath the surface. It wasn't long before he reappeared, looking puzzled. "There doesn't seem to be anything odd about it…" he began. "But there's some sort of gem stuck in its mouth…it looks shiny…I wonder if it's some sort of rare-"

"Well, get it out!" Scytheclaw muttered impatiently. The zangoose nodded and vanished again.

He reappeared a second time, panting and out of breath. "It's stuck, Scytheclaw," he reported, and before he could hear any angry responses, he added, "I'll try again!" before diving under.

Scytheclaw waited a little while longer before the zangoose's head broke the surface again. In his mouth he held an odd-shaped blue gem. Swimming over, he set it at Scytheclaw's feet.

The scizor bent down to peer at the stone, noticing how odd it looked. It was smooth, like a river rock, but clear-with odd little patterns interlacing the inside. He reached out to feel its surface with the tip of his pincer.

Still treading water near the edge of the pool, the zangoose watched as his leader collapsed.

* * *

"You know, I really don't think we're going to find it…not after all this time…and you still only have five pokémon with you…why is it so important to save that last place for the growlithe?"

Katie sighed and glanced up from her pidgeot's wing, which had been injured in a battle with a wild pokémon the day before. "I want to try training the growlithe right after I catch it," she explained. "And with pidgeot's wing hurt, it could be a long time before we can get back…"

"Why don't we head back now?" Justin replied, sounding angry. "I don't like not having a flying pokémon to-"

"Pidgeot's wing is taken care of…the injury wasn't bad…it just needs time to heal," Katie replied, now grateful that she had been given those (admittedly boring) lessons on how to treat her pokémon if they got injured in the wild. "We've still got plenty of supplies, and the pokémon don't have much of a problem finding more food for themselves…I still think there's a lot to be discovered out here. I don't want to head back yet."

"You know, there's probably a reason why trainers rarely ever venture this far…" Justin replied coldly, his voice trailing off.

"I don't see what your problem is," Katie replied crossly. "I thought you liked adventure."

Justin said nothing and merely stared at the landscape ahead.

Katie sighed and returned Pidgeot, picking up her backpack and starting to walk forward. "Come on, then," she called to Justin, still sounding annoyed.

Justin fingered the poké ball he still had in his pocket before following.

_To be continued..._


	42. Moving On

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 42-** **Moving On**

Snowcrystal darted through brambles and leaves, following Darkfang's scent to the best of her ability. The problem was, she was moving so fast that it was hard to focus on the scent as she fought to keep up with him. Growling as a thorn stabbed her paw pad, Snowcrystal stumbled, but steadied herself without looking at the thorn and ran on. She heard less sounds of moving leaves and branches coming from up ahead, meaning that Darkfang had probably slowed down. Gritting her teeth, she forced her paws to run faster.

She emerged into a small clearing covered in bushes, and it didn't take her long to spot Darkfang nearby. He had stopped and he looked out of breath. She hurried to catch up to him.

"Uh…Darkfang?"

"What do you want?" he growled, whirling around to look at her. She was surprised by the look of ferocity in his previously calm eyes.

Snowcrystal flinched, fighting the urge to back off. "I…I just want to know where you saw Articuno…the ice bird…flying to. You see-"

"Why would you want to know that?" Darkfang replied, no longer seeming hostile, only genuinely puzzled. "It left long ago. I don't think you'll be able to see it again."

_I might…_ Snowcrystal thought to herself, but didn't say it out loud. "Can you just…tell me where you saw it? Where it was going?"

"The mountain," Darkfang replied.

Snowcrystal was caught off guard-she hadn't expected such a quick and direct answer. Before she could ask what mountain Darkfang was talking about, the scyther pointed the tip of his one blade through the trees.

"It lies in that direction," he explained. "The mountain's easy to see once you emerge on the other side of the forest. The bird was heading toward it…or past it, I'm not sure. But that's all I know."

"A mountain…" she mused, staring off into the trees. "But why would…" She broke off, turning to look at Darkfang again. "Thank you," she told him. "I think you've really helped me…"

Darkfang looked puzzled, but he had no chance to respond as a sudden array of battle cries and a shriek of pain sliced through the air. Both pokémon paused for a moment and then turned and ran toward the noise-Darkfang because the voice crying out in pain was a scyther voice-and Snowcrystal out of a strange curiosity to find out what was happening. The two emerged near a shallow stream, where two of the swarm scyther-Snowcrystal assumed they were guards-were fighting another one that she recognized. Thunder.

It was easy to see that two swarm scyther had the upper claw-Thunder, although looking better now than she had the day before, was much weaker and it seemed as if she was having a hard time staying on her feet.

"Wait, stop!" Snowcrystal cried as she ran toward them.

The fighting scyther didn't seem to have heard her, because the moment after she called out, Thunder tried to slice into the bigger scyther's shoulder, but was blocked by one of his blades and knocked backwards off her feet and into the dirt.

"That's enough!" Darkfang shouted, and both guard scyther looked at him in surprise.

Snowcrystal thought that they would want an explanation. "She's one of us," she said quietly, not sure whether these scyther were for or against them staying here in the first place. "She didn't know we were staying here for the time being…she…"

The two guard scyther looked at each other, and glanced down at Thunder. Snowcrystal did as well, and was shocked to see that Thunder hadn't tried to get up-she was half lifting herself with her scythes, but was still on the ground. Glaring and snarling-but still on the ground.

Not sure what the other scyther would do to Thunder if she didn't leave or if she attacked, Snowcrystal dared to take a few steps closer to the scyther. "Thunder…follow me. I'll show you where the others are."

Thunder turned and glared at her. "I'm not going to listen to you! You're not on my side!" she snarled.

"I….what?"

Thunder didn't answer and merely lunged at the closest guard scyther from where she was on the ground. He moved out of her range effortlessly.

Snowcrystal had no idea what Thunder had meant by her reply, but she had sounded rather strange…even for her. Snowcrystal decided to assume that it was just Thunder being tired and sick so she could put the thought out of her mind. She noticed Darkfang glaring at Thunder and waited for her to try to attack him, but luckily, before another fight could break out, Nightshade appeared by the stream and put himself in front of the two guard scyther.

"She's with us," he explained. "I-"

"She's not allowed on our territory," one of the scyther told him.

"Why?" Nightshade asked calmly. "Your leader told us we could stay on your territory if we hunted for you."

"She's an enemy to our swarm," the scyther replied.

"Enemy?" Nightshade replied. "No, she's just-"

"She told us so."

At this, even Nightshade looked surprised. "She…told you?" He turned to Thunder, who gave the guard scyther another hateful stare and nodded. Looking thoroughly confused about how to handle the situation now, he turned to the three scyther standing nearby. "I'm sure she has no reason to be an enemy to you…I'll take her to where the others are…with your permission of course, and not near the swarm. I'll make sure she doesn't attack any of the scyther here again."

To Snowcrystal's surprise, the scyther guard nodded. "Fine," he replied. "It's not like she's an 'enemy' we should be scared of." Snowcrystal noticed that he had been the one Thunder had injured-his leg was cut, though not very deeply, and she assumed that scyther must be used to these sorts of injuries anyway from practice fights with one another.

"All right…follow me," Nightshade told Thunder, who, to her surprise, had gotten to her feet. Without a word, she limped into the bushes ahead of Nightshade, who hesitated a moment before following.

Snowcrystal watched Darkfang run into the bushes again and turned to follow Nightshade. There was something she needed to tell him. As she ran after the heracross, she noticed that he had caught up with Thunder, who didn't look particularly annoyed to have him around, at least not more than usual. Snowcrystal was glad to know that they weren't far from the rest of the group-Thunder didn't look like she should be traveling right now at all.

They reached the others faster than Snowcrystal would have thought, and all of them seemed surprised (and in Blazefang's case, disgusted) to see that Thunder had returned.

"Where were you?" Wildflame asked, and Snowcrystal didn't think the houndoom was surprised when she didn't get an answer.

Thunder merely just gave the group an odd look and then walked away, further into the bushes.

"Where are you going?" Redclaw asked, making his way toward her. "You're not leaving, are you?"

"I'm not leaving," Thunder replied in a dull voice. "I just don't want to be around you."

As Redclaw went to check that she did not go too far, Snowcrystal wondered if she should tell the group what Darkfang had said about Articuno. Yet something stopped her-some strange feeling in the back of her mind told her that she should talk to Nightshade first, and Nightshade alone. Turning to him, she whispered quietly that she wanted to talk to him-he nodded and they headed deeper into the forest together.

Once they reached a nice, peaceful spot where another section of the stream flowed past them lazily and the scyther scent was stronger and more recent-therefore there were no prey pokémon around-the two of them sat down at the water's edge. Nightshade looked down at Snowcrystal. "What was it you wanted to tell me?"

"It's about Articuno," she said quickly. "Darkfang…that scyther…said he saw him…heading toward a mountain that's just beyond this forest…I…I think maybe he might have stopped there, and if not…at least it's some sort of a clue about which way he went."

"Are you sure about what Darkfang said?" he asked, sounding surprised. Snowcrystal nodded, and he gave her a half-smile. "I'm glad you have finally found a clue. At least now, we know something of where to look."

Snowcrystal realized that he was trying to hide the fact that he wasn't very optimistic about getting to Articuno, and to tell the truth, she wasn't either. "I have to try, though," she whispered. "The others…back at my own mountain…need me. I wonder how they're doing now…" Glancing at her crystal amulet, which was now scratched and filthy, she thought about the growlithe who had given it to her, and why. She couldn't turn back now…not when she had finally found a glimmer of hope. "We'll have to talk to the others…and decide what to do," she said at last.

Snowcrystal realized that what would probably happen was that she and a few others would have to continue the journey, and the rest would be left behind. She hated the idea of the group splitting up, and she wanted to drive that thought from her mind for the time being. Turning to Nightshade, she decided to ask him a question. "How did you get Thunder to listen to you?" she asked. "I mean, she never listens to anyone…and you got her to give up that fight…"

Nightshade seemed surprised by the question, but didn't seem to mind answering. "She trusts me…a bit…or at least gives me as much trust as she'll allow."

"Why?" Snowcrystal asked, genuinely puzzled.

"I'm not sure," Nightshade admitted. "Most of the time she doesn't even want to be around me, except when she wants to talk about something."

"She talks to you?" Snowcrystal blurted out in surprise. Thunder had never struck her as a pokémon who would want to talk their problems out with someone, or even one who would actually see any benefit in doing so. She couldn't picture Thunder sitting next to someone and telling them about her problems-that just wasn't her.

"Yes," Nightshade replied. "She told me about the things her master did…and she apparently told Stormblade some of it too, though she regretted it."

"Was she…sad?" Snowcrystal asked, still finding the idea incredibly alien.

"Yes," Nightshade sighed. "She didn't show it…it's not easy at all to tell with her, but she was."

Snowcrystal was still confused over the whole thing, but at least now she could drive the image of Thunder huddled near another pokémon and talking about her past while crying from her head-that had just simply seemed too bizarre to be able to happen. "What exactly did she tell you?" she asked curiously.

"A lot of things," Nightshade replied. "About some of the things her master did. I really don't think I should repeat them to you, to be honest."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure she minded-she didn't think she wanted to know. "Why did she tell you all that?" she asked, still thoroughly confused. She could hardly believe this was Thunder they were talking about.

Nightshade looked thoughtful. "Well, I told her…a while ago…that she could always talk to me if she wanted to. I never expected her to actually want to do it, but I was wrong. She wanted to, so whenever we were alone I would let her talk to me. She mostly talks to me about how she wants to kill her master. She seems to like it, though...or at least…it makes her less angry, if only a little. I don't think she ever realized that talking to me might be helping her…I think she just wanted someone to listen. She tells me that she hates everyone in our traveling group, but I don't know if she means it. I don't think she thinks of me as a friend, but she told me she didn't hate me."

Maybe, Snowcrystal thought, that was Thunder's version of a compliment. She had no idea what would lead Thunder to hate the first pokémon who had shown kindness to her…in probably a long time…after all that had happened to her, but at the same time it didn't surprise her. Thunder typically acted like she didn't enjoy their company, even if most of the others were nice to her. It also didn't surprise her that killing her master would be a common conversation topic if Thunder were the one doing the talking. "I still don't get it though…why does she trust you?"

"I really don't know…" Nightshade replied. "I have to be careful what I say around her…it's hard to tell what makes her mad, and I don't want her to stop trusting me. I don't try to force her to do anything…or get mad when she doesn't do what she should, like rest or stop trying to hunt. I also don't usually comment on the things she tells me about her master…I don't think she'd want me to most of the time."

Snowcrystal was still genuinely puzzled by this, but she started to think back to Thunder's most recent actions, which weren't quite as puzzling, but still odd. "I don't get it…" she whispered. "Why did she fight those scyther? And why did she tell them she was their enemy? Did she know them before she got captured or something?"

"No," Nightshade replied, shaking his head. "She didn't. She got amnesia when she was very young, and never got the memories back, so she couldn't have remembered them. I don't think they were her swarm anyway, and I don't know why she told them she was their enemy…but I have an idea. I don't think she likes being around other scyther."

"She doesn't like much, does she?" Snowcrystal muttered.

"I don't think she ever got a chance to find out what she does like," Nightshade added thoughtfully.

"Maybe…" Snowcrystal replied. She wondered why Thunder had never really had much of a problem around Stormblade-or at least, the problems had only stemmed from Stormblade trying to help her when she didn't want it. Then again, she _had_ attacked him the moment he stepped near the place where she was chained back at the old city. Was that why she had run off in the morning? She didn't like other scyther? Maybe she had noticed that there were scyther living here…but yet why did she come to fight those guards? Knowing that she wasn't going to find answers to those questions, Snowcrystal let them slide out of her mind for the time being. Looking at Nightshade, she asked, "did Thunder ever ask you to tell her anything?"

Nightshade looked surprised at the question. He then turned away from Snowcrystal and looked at the stream. "No," he answered. "I told her things sometimes, but I don't know if she cared. It seemed to make her more willing to trust me, though."

Nightshade's voice faded into silence and Snowcrystal sighed, closing her eyes and letting the sound of the bubbling stream nearby fill her mind. Somehow, this conversation had only made her feel more sad about the journey that lay ahead of them, though she wasn't quite sure why. "Maybe we should talk to the others…" she whispered. "I'm going to have to go look for Articuno as soon as I can, and I don't have long to rest."

"I'm coming with you, you know that, right?"

"You? But you're injured! I don't think you should travel while…"

"It won't be the first time," Nightshade replied with a small smile. "And you don't need to worry. The wounds are already healing."

"What about Thunder?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Thunder needs someone to teach her how to hunt when she is well enough," Nightshade answered. "I can't help her with that. Redclaw can, and I have a strong feeling that he'd want to stay behind with Stormblade."

"Oh…" Snowcrystal replied, still not liking the thought of the group splitting up. She hated the idea that she would be too far away to know what was happening to Stormblade…and to all of the friends she would leave behind. "Do you think we should tell the others now?"

Nightshade nodded. "Yes…" He stood up. "I'll get Rosie and bring her to where everyone else is. We…we can talk to Stormblade later."

Snowcrystal nodded, and watched as Nightshade headed in the direction of their resting place by the swarm before turning to look at the lake and then following him slowly.

* * *

Gathered together under the trees, the entire group of travelers, minus Stormblade, listened as Snowcrystal told them everything Darkfang had said. Rosie, Wildflame and Spark had seemed shocked and excited, Redclaw had looked happy for her, and Blazefang had seemed, oddly, horrified. Snowcrystal didn't dwell on it-after all, his pack had abandoned him, so any hopes he had of winning Articuno over to the houndour side were over. Thunder, not surprisingly, seemed completely indifferent to the news.

"So…are you going to go look for him now?" Rosie asked, a hint of sadness and worry in her voice. Snowcrystal knew why.

"Of course," she replied. "I…I have to. And I'm going to have to leave very soon. That's why…I wanted to ask you…which of you wanted to come with me." There. She had said it. And now it was time to see the group split up at last.

Silence met her statement, as everyone seemed to be thinking this over. If they hadn't realized what this had been coming to, they did now. After a moment longer, Spark was the first one to speak up. "Snowcrystal," he began. "We pretty much started this journey together, and we're going to finish it…together. I'm going with you."

Snowcrystal looked at him in surprise. She would have thought that he'd have been one of the ones who wanted to stay-after all, he was Stormblade's friend, and it was obvious that Stormblade wouldn't be traveling.

"I…I'm going too," Rosie said quietly. "You helped rescue me from that cage…and though I didn't realize it at the time…you…you probably saved my life, seeing as how that was a poacher's trap. I know I might slow you down, but my leg's almost better now. It hardly hurts. I don't think it will be much of a problem anymore."

Snowcrystal looked at Rosie gratefully, but her eyes wandered to the ninetales' leg. It wasn't hard to see that the leg hadn't healed properly-Rosie would probably have a limp the rest of her life. However, Rosie was right-it had to be close to healing now, and the ninetales hadn't had much of a hard time keeping up lately. And if Rosie thought she could do it, Snowcrystal didn't doubt her. "Thanks…you two," she told them gratefully, both stunned and touched by their willingness to follow her.

"And I am going, as I've already mentioned," Nightshade added, giving Spark and Rosie a proud glance.

"I am going too," said another pokémon, and Snowcrystal was shocked to see that it was Thunder. "I still need a good place to live. I will not find that here."

"I really think you should stay, honestly," Snowcrystal told her, deciding that now was no time to lie or tell a half-truth. "You shouldn't be traveling at all. You're injured, you're sick, you have infected wounds, and you're far too thin to be-"

Thunder gave her a murderous glare. "I…will not…stay here!" she growled.

"It's all right Thunder," Spark told her with a smile. "We know you'd miss us."

Thunder gave Spark a look that made Snowcrystal feel uncomfortably like the scyther really _wouldn't_ have missed them; it was a look of annoyance rather than one of angry denial.

"If Thunder is going, I want to go as well," Redclaw told the group. "I'm the one best able to show her how to hunt, and well…" He looked nervously at Thunder, who showed no reaction or even any indication that she had heard him.

"I'll go with you as well," Wildflame announced, an unreadable expression in her eyes. Was it excitement? Hope? Longing?

Snowcrystal glanced at Nightshade. "Who's going to stay with Stormblade?" she asked.

"I think he should stay with the swarm…" Redclaw began. "They're his own kind…and maybe we can convince them to accept him…"

"Could Nightshade teach them the healing herbs?" Rosie asked.

Snowcrystal thought all this over in her head. She hadn't expected everyone to want to keep going, and now that they all did, she wasn't sure how she could leave Stormblade behind. Yet…they needed to keep going…and he couldn't make such a long and fast-paced journey. "We need to talk to him later," she told the others. "Then…then we can decide what he should do." She didn't want to think about having to leave him, but if she talked to one of the other scyther…maybe Darkfang…

Snowcrystal was jolted from her thoughts by the sound of Blazefang and Wildflame's bickering. Puzzled, she looked over in their direction, at about the same time that the other pokémon did.

"Blazefang…you've got to come with us," Wildflame was saying, not even making an effort to keep her voice down. "You don't have anywhere else to go."

"They don't want me around, and I don't want to be around _them_!" Blazefang shouted, giving the group around him a petrifying glare.

"I'm sure they're willing to work with you if you just give them a chance," Wildflame replied, although the look on Rosie's face as she glared at Blazefang said otherwise. "I want to help them find Articuno…" she added, sounding to Snowcrystal as if she felt awkward admitting that to Blazefang.

Blazefang's eyes widened in understanding, and he turned away. "Go ahead," he muttered. "Find him! I don't care…"

Wildflame simply sighed, and Rosie grinned and muttered, "we won't miss you."

"Please…Blazefang…" Wildflame begged, "we could help Snowcrystal work it out with Articuno…for the pa-I mean…your pack…"

Snowcrystal felt confused-did Wildflame really still care so deeply about a former pack mate who had driven her away after she evolved? Deciding that whatever had gone on in the houndour pack was none of her business, she didn't mention it out loud.

"Fine…" Blazefang muttered after a moment. "But…I won't be going as far as Articuno. If you find him and can help the pack, then good. But as soon as we know whether or not he can help, I'm going back to my home."

Snowcrystal was glad that, for whatever reason, Wildflame seemed much happier, though she couldn't help wondering if letting Blazefang keep tagging along was a good idea at all, even if he was technically no longer their enemy. And from the looks of the others around her, she could tell that these thoughts were not hers alone.

* * *

Snowcrystal was very careful as she walked through the forest trees, following Darkfang's scent. Before everyone talked to Stormblade, she wanted to talk to him-out of all the scyther, he seemed the most likely to understand. Maybe he could even gather herbs for Stormblade while they were gone-if the scyther let him stay, that is.

It surprisingly wasn't hard to track Darkfang, and she found him in a clearing, where he had killed and was nearly done eating some sort of prey pokémon that Snowcrystal could no longer identify.

"Darkfang?" she asked quietly.

"What?" he replied, looking up at her. From the look on his face, Snowcrystal realized that he hadn't noticed her until she'd spoken up, probably because of the scent of the prey. "I already told you all I knew…"

"It's not that," Snowcrystal said quickly. "It's just…we're leaving soon…"

"You are?" he responded, only seeming mildly interested. "Well, make sure you catch some prey before you leave or else the other scyther will think you were just here to take prey from us and leave."

"Oh…okay," Snowcrystal replied, realizing that the promise they had made had entirely slipped her mind. She hoped that the others had at least caught something for the scyther swarm so far. "Well, what I wanted to ask you," she continued after a moment's hesitation, "well…you see, we can't take Stormblade with us…he's the scyther we brought here injured. I was wondering if you could ask the other scyther to let him stay here." She waited for him to respond, suddenly realizing that he might not like the idea of asking his swarm to take in an injured outsider who would not only be completely dependent upon them, but would also be unable to hunt or serve the other scyther in any way.

Darkfang looked thoughtful before replying. "I…I wouldn't mind him staying here," he began slowly, "but…the rest of the swarm…they would. Or at least…most of them would. I don't know if they'd want an extra scyther to take care of." He paused and glanced thoughtfully in the direction of the swarm. "Did he say that he wanted to stay here and not come with you?"

"Uh…no," Snowcrystal replied. Even though she thought that Stormblade really didn't have a choice, she hadn't even asked him yet. She had gone to Darkfang first so that she could at least know that Stormblade joining the swarm could be a possibility before she talked to him about it.

"Then you might as well talk to him first before I try asking them," Darkfang replied, sounding annoyed. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly a scyther others look up to. It'll be a lot of work trying to convince them."

Snowcrystal took a deep breath and sighed. "All right. Look, Darkfang…do you know what we might face on the way to that mountain? How far is it?"

"From the edge of the forest? A couple days' journey, I would think. There are mostly plains and rocky fields, and there's a big lake you'll pass on the way. I don't know what you'll find after passing the mountain, however. I've never been that far."

"Okay, thanks," Snowcrystal told him. Then she thought about something. "How come you left the old forest?" she asked. "The one that…that burned down…"

Darkfang seemed surprised by the odd question, but he merely shrugged. "It was close to a human city and the Leader was worried," he explained. "Though I really didn't understand what they were afraid of-it was a human who found me after the fight where I lost my arm-if it weren't for him, I would have died. I had no idea what they wanted with me at the time, but after being taken to one of their buildings I soon realized that they just wanted to help. I didn't like being out of the forest, but it wasn't too bad. The humans did something to make it not hurt so much, and they gave me meat that tasted nice."

Snowcrystal felt puzzled that he was telling her this, and puzzled at simply _what_ he was telling her. She didn't exactly have the best outlook on humans, though she knew from what Spark had told her that some of them were nice. Maybe there were more humans out there who were nice than she had thought there was. "Didn't you try to tell them…how they helped you?" she asked Darkfang.

A sad look appeared in Darkfang's eyes and he shook his head. "No," he replied slowly. "I pretty much lost the respect of a lot of the other scyther after the humans set me free. With only one blade, I couldn't duel anymore…and well, everyone knows I can't fight back…"

A sudden thought struck Snowcrystal. "If you don't like it here…" she began, "why don't you come with us? You saw Articuno, so we could use your help, and-"

Darkfang shook his head. "No," he told her firmly. "I do like it here. I…don't think I could ever leave the swarm. There are still a lot of scyther who care about me. Of course I'm going to stay with them."

"All right," Snowcrystal sighed. Really, she shouldn't have expected that Darkfang would want to leave with them, after all. "But could you…" She paused. This was the other reason she had needed to come to Darkfang before talking to Stormblade. "Could you ask the other scyther if we could all come to where Stormblade is…just to talk to him? We promise…we won't stay long."

Darkfang looked hesitant, but then he slowly nodded. "Okay," he replied. "I don't think they would have too much of a problem with that."

* * *

It seemed a surprisingly short time before Snowcrystal and her friends had all gathered together, being led by Darkfang and a few other scyther to where Stormblade was. No one seemed to mind as much that the travelers were going near them now that they had heard they would soon be leaving-and there wasn't much of a threat they could pose in the midst of such a great number of scyther anyway. The only one they had left behind was Thunder, who had seemed like she wanted to be alone anyway, and there was no way it would be a good idea to bring her in the midst of all those strangers.

None of the scyther seemed surprised when they entered the big clearing-or at least, Snowcrystal didn't notice any of them acting surprised. She was mainly focusing on what they were going to tell Stormblade, and she felt that she wanted to be the one to do it. Once they reached the place where Stormblade was resting, the scyther leading them ran off, and Darkfang hesitated a moment before following them.

"Stormblade?" Snowcrystal asked, walking up to him as the others sat down, waiting to hear Snowcrystal explain. The growlithe walked up to Stormblade's still form, and wondered for a moment if he was asleep. A moment later, however, and his eyes opened and he looked up at her.

"What…is it?" he asked, his voice scarcely more than a whisper. Snowcrystal thought he looked too exhausted to talk-she was surprised he had spoken at all.

Blazefang, who had come along only because being left alone in the forest with Thunder hadn't appealed to him in the least, snorted with impatience and gave Snowcrystal an annoyed look. "Just get on with it," he mumbled.

Rosie glared daggers at him, reminding him swiftly that he was the reason Stormblade was in this state. Blazefang didn't respond and stared at his paws in sullen silence.

Snowcrystal just sighed and looked at Stormblade again. Stormblade, who seemed too weak to even lift his head, looked back at her. "Stormblade…" she began, "we've all decided…well, you see…we've finally found a clue to where Articuno is, so…" She waited for some kind of response from Stormblade, but his expression, aside from pain, just remained blank. "We're going to leave, very soon…and we know you can't travel anymore. We want to ask the scyther if you can stay with them here…" Her voice trailed off as she heard loud voices drifting toward them, and leaped back as two small scyther-one of them the dark green one she recognized from before-darted close to them in the middle of what looked like a play-battle.

Redclaw growled as he stood up to avoid them, looking as if he would have batted them lightly with his paw if he weren't afraid of the other scyther getting angry at him for it. The scyther didn't even notice him and when they came to a stop they were very close to Snowcrystal.

She turned to face them. "Look, could you please leave? We're trying to…"

"See? That's that scyther," the dark green female told her friend, who looked about the same age as she was. Obviously she hadn't heard Snowcrystal or didn't care. "I wonder what happened to make him like that." Her friend nodded, staring wide-eyed at him.

Snowcrystal felt angry that not only were they talking right in front of Stormblade-who was watching them-but they seemed to act as if he couldn't hear them at all. Snowcrystal could tell that some of her friends were annoyed as well, but they all knew that showing aggression to very young scyther wasn't a good idea with all the adults around.

"Do you think he got in a fight?" the small female was asking.

"Maybe," the other one replied. "He must have been strong if he hasn't died yet. He's really big too…if he didn't have those wounds and wasn't so thin, he could probably be a leader."

Snowcrystal noticed that at this statement, not only did Stormblade visibly flinch, but he looked genuinely hurt by the statement. Snowcrystal narrowed her eyes. "Get away from him!" she shouted at the two scyther, who looked at her in surprise, along with the rest of her friends.

"What?" one of the scyther muttered, surprised. "This is our territory! You can't-"

"I said to leave him alone!" Snowcrystal growled. The two scyther glared at her and walked away. Now that she realized it, she wondered just how many scyther had tried to bother Stormblade, or talk about him while he could hear. It made her wonder if she really should have left him for so long after all.

"Be careful, Snowcrystal," Redclaw whispered, watching the two scyther who were now staring at them angrily from a little ways away. "We don't want to seem hostile."

"I know, but I couldn't just let them talk about Stormblade like that when he obviously didn't want to hear it…" she muttered angrily.

"Snowcrystal?"

Snowcrystal turned, surprised at hearing Stormblade's voice, a bit stronger than it had been before. He was giving her a more determined look than before, one that made him look stronger than he had been. But why did it feel so…wrong?

"I...I want to leave," he stated. "Take me out of the forest and away from here."

"What?" she gasped. "Why? Is it because of what those scyther said? I really, really don't think you should listen-"

"No...it's not about that," Stormblade replied, his voice beginning to sound weak again. "Please, I don't want to be here. Take me away from here. Find some sort of resting place for me and leave me there."

Snowcrystal stared at him in shock. "_What?_"

Stormblade held his gaze, his blue eyes locked onto hers. "I can't travel with you anymore," he began again, "I'm holding you back. I just want to be somewhere alone...when I...when I…well…"

Snowcrystal shook her head. "We're not going to _leave_ you!"

Rosie stepped forward to stand by Snowcrystal. "Listen to her, Stormblade," she said firmly. "We're not going to just leave you in some random place. Don't you get it? We leave you, and you will DIE. You can't survive alone!"

"I know that," Stormblade replied.

"Do you _want_ to die?" Rosie growled.

"I just want you to take me somewhere where I can be alone," Stormblade said in response. "And leave me there. That's all I want…please do it."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure if Stormblade was even talking sense. She would have liked to tell him to stop it, tell him that he shouldn't talk that way and that he was just being selfish…if she didn't know that everything he was saying and everything he meant behind those words wasn't completely, and painfully, true. She held Stormblade's gaze, and the pleading look in his eyes made her feel torn about what to do. If this was what he wanted, she should help, but how could she ever leave him behind alone?

"We're not going to leave you, Stormblade," Redclaw told him, stepping forward. "Nightshade can teach some of the scyther here the herbs…I'm sure they could…"

"No…" Stormblade said weakly. "I don't want to be here."

Snowcrystal heard another pokémon walk forward, and to her surprise, it was Blazefang. "Not that my opinion means anything to you pokémon," the houndour began, "but...I think you should do what he says. If he wants to be alone, I don't see why you shouldn't grant him that wish. It's the least you could do." He shrugged, glancing around at the others.

"I…I think Blazefang's right," Spark began slowly, looking down at Stormblade. The shock that the jolteon was actually agreeing with Blazefang barely even registered to Snowcrystal. "Either way…" he continued, looking sadly at the friend he had traveled with for so long, "he still can't come with us…and if it'll bring him peace…it's probably for the better…"

Stormblade lifted his head a little, trying his best to look at all of them better. "Do it...please?"

Snowcrystal glanced back at the others-Wildflame just nodded in silence, Spark and Nightshade glanced sadly at Stormblade, Redclaw looked unsure, Rosie seemed devastated, and Blazefang simply looked on nonchalantly.

"We don't have to leave right away," Nightshade reminded him. "We can find him a safe place near water, and I can find some of those herbs. Maybe Darkfang could come to make sure he was all right…"

Stormblade said nothing, but Snowcrystal could tell that he knew that he would probably not need any of those things for long, and though she hated to admit it, he was right, and leaving Stormblade wasn't exactly a choice. Looking at him sadly, she nodded her head. "All right, Stormblade."

* * *

By that night, everyone had traveled through the rest of the forest. They had faced a few hostile pokémon, but Redclaw and Wildflame had managed to intimidate them enough for the forest pokémon to allow them to go by unharmed. Now at the forest's edge, Snowcrystal could see the gigantic mountain looming ahead of them in the distance. Its topmost peak was covered in white snow, which gave Snowcrystal a fleeting feeling of hope. _Or it could just be snow left there from winter…_she reminded herself bitterly.

They had found a stream surrounded by tall trees which provided shelter from the wind. This, Stormblade had told them, was the place he wanted to stay.

Snowcrystal, however, felt a bit calmer now, though that wasn't saying much, as she knew that there was no way they were going to leave Stormblade without some sort of help, no matter what he said. Nightshade had managed to convince Darkfang, one of the only scyther who seemed to care enough about helping other members of his species, even if they were outsiders, to bring Stormblade food. If Articuno really was on that mountain, then after they found him, they could come back and help Stormblade. That is…if he was still alive when they got there.

For the rest of the night, Snowcrystal, as well as many of the others, lay awake thinking, and when morning finally came, Snowcrystal briefly wondered if it would be better to wait longer until they started the journey. Almost instantly, she knew they could not-she had been gone for too long already, and who knew what was going on back at her home. And if they stayed, it would make no difference to Stormblade's health. It was time to leave.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Snowcrystal asked Rosie, who was sitting nearby. "This isn't your journey, and you still need the rest…"

"Of course!" Rosie replied, sounding rather offended. "I wouldn't have said I was going to go if I didn't want to!"

"Sorry," Snowcrystal replied, taken aback. "It's just…"

"Look, I know you're worried about everyone, Snowcrystal," Redclaw began as he walked up to her. "Stormblade especially, but Stormblade's better off here than he is coming with us, or back at the swarm if he really didn't want to be there. I don't know if we'll see him again, but…you're doing the best thing. If we're going to start following Articuno, we need to start now."

Snowcrystal nodded slowly and glanced over at Stormblade, who lay still beneath one of the trees closest to the stream. Honestly, she did not think he would last until they found Articuno and came back. This was probably the last she'd ever see of him.

All around her, the other pokémon were getting ready for the journey, all looking as if they each felt differently about it. Most of them-or at least those who wanted to-had already spoken to Stormblade, and although she had as well, she wanted to give him one last good bye.

"Stormblade?" she whispered, slowly approaching him.

He turned his gaze to her in response. "I thought you were leaving already," he said in a hoarse whisper.

"We're…we're going to…" she began.

"Then don't waste time for me," he replied, his gaze flicking away from her.

Despite all that had happened, Snowcrystal felt stunned-she wasn't used to seeing Stormblade look like this, and even though she knew that he just wanted her to get started on what was bound to be a hard journey, she hated to hear him say something like that. "I…I really don't think…I mean, I really don't want to leave you here…"

Stormblade sighed. "Didn't you promise me that you would do this one thing for me? It's best for both of us that I stay here. It's all I want, and it's all I'm asking you to do."

"Yes, but…" she paused, seeing the pleading expression on Stormblade's face. "I know…"

"Snowcrystal?" she heard Wildflame call from up ahead. The others were ready to go, and it seemed to Snowcrystal like it was far too soon.

"Good bye, Stormblade…" Snowcrystal whispered, looking at him one last time before heading after the others, barely hearing his voice as she walked away.

"_Good bye…"_

* * *

Even with the mountain ahead of them, Snowcrystal still felt as if her journey was leading her nowhere. Wasn't it her journey, she realized, that had made Blazefang come after them? Wasn't it her journey that had gotten Stormblade injured in the first place? She couldn't help feeling that somehow, it had all been her fault.

As they walked, Snowcrystal kept glancing behind her at the place where they had left Stormblade. Redclaw quickly noticed this.

"We may see him again," he told her, though he didn't sound like he was sure he believed it.

"But we might not…" Snowcrystal added bitterly, and then looked up at the arcanine standing beside her. "Redclaw, can I go back? Just to see Stormblade again? I won't be long, and it won't be hard for me to catch up, I just…please?"

Redclaw looked surprised, and Blazefang snorted. "You just saw him!" the houndour growled. "What, do you think his wounds were that pretty to look at?"

Surprisingly, no one replied to his comment, and Redclaw thought a moment before nodding. "All right…but be quick." Then he turned to Spark, who everyone knew had been Stormblade's friend for longer than the rest of them. "Do you want to go as well?"

Spark merely shook his head numbly.

Snowcrystal turned and began walking back in the direction of Stormblade. "I'll be back," she told the others sadly before darting off back toward the stream.

* * *

"Can we stop now?" Justin growled. They had been traveling since the previous night, after Katie had found what she thought were growlithe paw prints on the outskirts of the forest. The past day had been spent exploring said forest, but the amount of wild pokémon had quickly tired out Katie's four healthy battling pokémon, and they'd had to resort to going around it.

"Those paw prints were fresh, Justin," Katie responded, sounding annoyed. "And I thought you were the one who wanted me to find that growlithe in the first place."

"It could have been a normal growlithe who made those paw prints," Justin muttered, sitting down on the grass.

"Fine," Katie muttered, "stay here without any of my pokémon to protect you." She turned and walked away. Justin just shrugged and stayed where he was. Rolling her eyes, Katie kept walking. She only wanted to go a little further, anyway.

She felt confused. Over the past little while during their exploration, Justin seemed to be losing hope, and not just about the growlithe either. Still, Katie felt that she was close, and maybe catching it could make Justin a lot happier.

Hearing the trickle of a stream nearby, Katie was reminded that they were low on water. Walking toward it, she approached a group of trees, stepping over a few fallen branches as the edge of the stream came in sight. And at the same time, so did something else. For a second, Katie thought it must have been a hallucination or something of the sort, but a scyther was lying nearby…the same one who had supposedly died in the pokémon center explosion…for surely Team Rocket would never had taken such an injured pokémon?

Katie stood completely still, as if frozen. How on earth had Justin's scyther managed to get _here_? Or even anywhere near where they were? Was it someone else's pokémon now, tracking down the growlithe as well? No, she thought, that was absurd. It was injured. There was no way that could be it. Still, seeing that same scyther lying before her was simply too eerie.

Cautiously, she approached it, noticing that not only had its wounds failed to heal, but that it had new ones as well. Despite knowing the horrible thing it had done in the past, she still felt sorry for it.

Carefully, she knelt down beside it, noting that its eyes were closed and it made no indication that it even knew she was there. "You're still alive…" she whispered in disbelief, knowing that it couldn't hear her-it looked to her as if it had recently slipped into unconsciousness. Maybe, she thought to herself, she could do something to help. She had brought plenty of supplies before leaving Stonedust City, and although she only knew basic healing techniques, she still had the medicine that could really help injured pokémon. And no pokémon, no matter what they did, deserved something like this…

Katie thought for a moment, and then took out a poké ball from her backpack. She had been saving the last spot on her team for the growlithe, but… Suddenly she stopped herself. Was catching this scyther now really wise, when if she had caught another pokémon first, it would have been sent back to the pokémon ranch? Looking around her, Katie couldn't see any other pokémon nearby, and hers were already worn out from the battling the previous day. She looked at the poké ball in her hand and then back at the scyther. Catching it, she knew, would mean that it would not get to a pokémon center for a long time. Yet, while her pokémon were so weak, she didn't want to battle unless she had to, and the pokémon around here were far from weak. But if she caught it now, at least she'd be able to help it…

Looking at the poké ball she was holding, she sighed and placed it back in her backpack, and then took out another. This one was a luxury ball, a type of poké ball she only had a few of and had never really used, but if there was any time to use it, it was now. She tapped it lightly against the scyther's blade, which at the moment seemed to her to be the only part of its body that didn't have some sort of injury. The pokémon dissolved in a beam of red light and vanished into the small sphere. The poké ball didn't even shake once before the red light on the button went out with a 'ping.'

Picking it up, Katie stared at the stream as she wondered if what she had just done had really been a good thing. Was it cruel to keep pokémon away from a pokémon center when they needed it for so long? She wasn't anywhere near one, and until pidgeot recovered, there was no way of getting back. And even still…she did not think she could allow herself to go back until she had caught the growlithe, and Justin certainly wouldn't allow her…

_Justin…_ With a sickening feeling, Katie realized that she would have a lot of explaining to do once Justin found out what she'd done. Looking at the luxury ball, she turned around and walked back, wondering whether she had just made a horrible, horrible mistake.

And as she walked, she didn't notice the eyes of the snow white growlithe staring at her from the bushes, before it turned and ran away.

_To be continued..._


	43. To the Mountain

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 43-To the Mountain**

"_All right, Snowcrystal_, this time try to get the flames to move in a circle. Don't worry, it gets easier the more you practice."

Snowcrystal nodded to Redclaw and tried her flame wheel attack once again, sighing in frustration when she still didn't manage to get the wheel shape she wanted quite right.

"It's all right," Redclaw told her, trying to be encouraging. "Try again!"

"Maybe we should try this later…" Snowcrystal sighed. She and the others had stopped for a little while to try and practice their battle moves after they had spent the morning traveling. Snowcrystal secretly knew that Redclaw and Nightshade, who had suggested it, were trying to keep her mind off of Stormblade. It had worked for a while, but now she just didn't feel like she had the energy to keep practicing. Even though she knew that Stormblade had a chance now, she still couldn't stop thinking about how much she missed him being with the rest of them. She tried to think of what Darkfang had said and what Spark had told everyone after she informed them that Stormblade had been captured. Humans had healing techniques far beyond what wild pokémon did…maybe they could even find a way to heal Forbidden Attack wounds, if they _could_ be healed. Either way, she admitted, Stormblade had to be much better off now, wherever he was.

Redclaw simply just looked sadly at the ground.

"Maybe she's right," Spark called from over where he was practicing with Wildflame. The jolteon scampered over to where the Redclaw and Snowcrystal were. "It would probably be a good idea to save our strength for the journey."

"I'm not tired…" Snowcrystal murmured. "But you do have a point. Maybe we should all take a break."

"Do you think we should stop here for the rest of the day?" Spark asked. "I mean, some of the others…meaning _Thunder_, need to rest…_no matter what she says_," he added under his breath.

"I don't think the lake Darkfang told Snowcrystal about is very far," Rosie announced, walking over to them as well. "I could see it after standing on that group of boulders over there. I think we should wait until then to stop until tomorrow. We need a place with water and there's likely to be prey over there too."

Redclaw glanced up to where Nightshade was watching Wildflame practice a few of her fire attacks, shooting them in the air so as not to let the grass catch on fire. "Over here!" he called to them, and Nightshade and Wildflame walked over, followed reluctantly by Blazefang, who had not left Wildflame's side since their new journey had started.

"Okay, where's Thunder?" Spark growled after looking over the assembled pokémon. "She needs to be here too! Where is she?"

"Who cares," Blazefang muttered. "Just get on with it."

Snowcrystal had been scanning the area around them-a somewhat flat landscape covered in grass and scraggly bushes, with odd rocky areas here and there-a lot of them consisting of big piles of boulders that stood rather high. She assumed Thunder must have gone behind one of them to be alone or to rest or something. "Don't worry about it," she told the others.

"Okay, look," Spark explained, taking charge for the moment. "I think we should travel to the lake and rest there until tomorrow. We can go now and get there sooner…"

"The lake?" Wildflame repeated. "I think we can go farther than that…and in case you don't remember, we don't have much time to waste now that we're chasing down a legendary."

"There will be prey there," Spark explained. "We can catch a lot and save our strength for the next day, and then we catch some more prey before leaving. We don't know how easy it will be to find food later."

Wildflame just shrugged, and a few of the others nodded in agreement to Spark. Snowcrystal sighed. "I guess we ought to leave now then. Someone go find Thunder…" she stopped herself, for the scyther had suddenly appeared behind a group of rocks, looking thoroughly annoyed with her.

"Come on!" Spark cried, leaping up. "The sooner we get to the lake the longer we get to rest!"

He darted off, and Snowcrystal watched him, wondering how on earth he could be acting so cheerful. Her gaze traveled to the lone, tall mountain capped with snow that loomed over them, and she felt an odd chill run through her body that certainly wasn't cold. Ignoring it, she focused her gaze on Spark and began to follow him.

* * *

Snowcrystal was grateful for Spark's plan by the time they reached the lake's edge-it was nearly evening and she felt both exhausted and hungry. A few of the others looked just as tired as she felt, and Thunder, who Snowcrystal knew was still sick, was probably the worst off.

Spark was standing nearby, staring out at the sparkling surface of the lake in the fading sunlight, watching tiny waves gently lapping the shore. The lake was bigger than Snowcrystal had expected, but Spark had been right-there was prey pokémon scent everywhere.

She rested along with Rosie and Thunder (though she kept her distance) while the others hunted, or in Nightshade's case, went off to find his own food from trees. Her thoughts kept wandering back to Stormblade. _Would that human really know how to take care of him? Would she be nice to him? Would she give him enough food and water?_

Unable to stop herself from worrying, she lay her head down on her paws, watching the sun beginning to set. Footsteps behind her told her that the hunters had arrived, and she looked up to see with pleasant surprise that they had brought back more prey than she had thought they would find.

Blazefang set down a spearow, looking proud of himself, while the others set their catches down beside his. There was plenty for everyone, Snowcrystal thought, as long as it was divided equally. She and Rosie decided to share the pidgeotto that Redclaw had caught while Blazefang took his own prey and the others divided the rest up. Snowcrystal looked over at Thunder, who had not approached the others but sat staring at them from some distance away. Redclaw picked up the rest of his prey and walked over to her, offering it to her. Thunder snatched it away and turned away from him.

Snowcrystal watched her carry it away and then begin eating it alone before turning back to her own meal. Her gaze flickered across the lake, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw some sort of disturbance on its surface. Looking back, she quickly determined that she had not imagined it-something was moving through the water directly below the surface and was headed straight for them. Frightened, she backed up, startling Rosie, as the head of a large pokémon broke the surface of the water.

For Snowcrystal, it was at first hard to judge whether or not she should be afraid of this creature. It had orange and cream fur and a pointed snout, and two fangs poking out of the side of its mouth. The rest of the creature was underwater, and Snowcrystal couldn't tell what it looked like. Whatever it was, it looked big and powerful and was swimming strongly toward them at a quick speed. However, it didn't seem to mind that its head was in plain sight, and it didn't seem to be going fast enough for an attack, so Snowcrystal relaxed a bit, but still glanced at the pokémon warily as it neared the edge of the lake where she and her friends were. By now, the others had noticed it too and were all staring at it in either confusion or fear.

"A water type…" Rosie hissed.

Reaching the edge of the lake, the pokémon climbed out of the water. Snowcrystal could now see that it stood on two legs, had a blue fin on each of its arms, two long tails, and something long and yellow around its body that looked like it would be buoyant in water. Redclaw, Wildflame, Blazefang and Rosie were all staring at it with fangs bared in a warning, and electricity was crackling over Spark's fur. The strange pokémon didn't seem at all threatened-in fact, it seemed completely oblivious to the travelers' displays of aggression.

"Well, hello!" the pokémon said loudly, as if coming up to strangers in a potentially dangerous land and greeting them was the most natural thing in the world. Its voice told Snowcrystal that the pokémon was female. No one answered it, and the stranger glanced at the prey which for the moment lay forgotten on the ground. "Mind if I have some?"

"We don't share food with pokémon like _you_!" Blazefang growled, stepping forward bravely. "Now leave us alone."

The pokémon didn't seem to mind Blazefang's actions-she simply looked at the next pokémon-Rosie, who was closest. "All right. Then can I have some of yours?"

"No!" Rosie shouted. "What are you even doing here?"

Redclaw moved in front of the rest of the group, facing the strange pokémon calmly. "There's no need for a fight," he stated, addressing the travelers just as much as this strange lake pokémon.

"A fight?" the pokémon repeated, tilting her head, "I never said I wanted a fight. But if you want to battle…"

"We don't," Rosie said quickly and seriously.

"Well…" Snowcrystal began, uncertain. "If all she wants is food…I think we have some to spare." The last thing she wanted was for this pokémon to suddenly get angry and demand food from them. If it was a water type, like Rosie had said and like Snowcrystal strongly believed, their group of mostly fire-types would be at a big disadvantage if this pokémon was very strong.

"Huh…" Spark muttered, his fur lying flat again as he approached the pokémon. "You don't look dangerous, and if you are, I could knock you out with my electric attacks. I don't think she's dangerous," he added, glancing at Redclaw and the group. "Just a stray floatzel."

"Knock me out?" the floatzel repeated, sounding as if she found the idea hilarious. "I'd like to see you try!"

Snowcrystal tensed a bit at her last statement, but she had sounded friendly. Maybe, she thought, this…floatzel could give them valuable tips about their journey ahead if she was used to living in this area. "Here," she stated, pushing the rest of the prey toward the floatzel and hoping Rosie wouldn't mind. She watched as the otter-like pokémon grabbed it eagerly and began eating it.

"Huh…" the floatzel was saying between mouthfuls, "it doesn't taste as good as seaking, but…still good!"

Blazefang let out a long sigh of frustration, and several of the others still seemed wary, though at least the threat of a fight seemed to have passed, if there ever was one at all. Snowcrystal realized that the others probably couldn't see the potential help this pokémon could give. Taking a few steps closer to the floatzel, she addressed her in what she hoped was a polite manner.

"Um…look, we're travelers, and we're heading toward the mountain. Do you know the way to the mountain is like? Or what's beyond it? You see-"

"An adventure!" the floatzel shouted, sounding overjoyed. "That sounds amazing! You know, one of these days I want to go on my own adventure, to the ocean! I've always wanted to see the ocean…"

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what the 'ocean' was like or why anyone would want to go there-from the stories she'd heard about it from flying types back at her mountain, it sounded huge and terrifying. "Listen," she told the floatzel. "You're missing the point…this is very important, and we need to know-"

"Why of course it's important!" the floatzel replied cheerfully. "I'd consider my own adventure important if I were in the middle of it!"

Confused, Snowcrystal just stared until she felt Wildflame's voice by her ear. "We're getting nowhere with this," the houndoom whispered. "Just ignore her."

Snowcrystal sighed and walked away, to where Rosie (who looked rather annoyed that she had given away their food) was sitting. The floatzel seemed to have lost interest in the group and was focused on eating. "I guess she doesn't know much," she sighed. "Or doesn't want to tell us."

"Yeah," Rosie replied, annoyed. "I don't understand why she would come up to a group of strangers like that. It's just…weird. Though after Forbidden Attacks, I guess nothing seems very strange any more."

Snowcrystal had to agree, but the floatzel's actions were pretty strange. She looked as if she felt perfectly comfortable in the midst of a group of strangers, regardless of the hostility she had been shown.

"Hey," Spark growled, nudging the floatzel in the side, "you could at least tell us what you're doing here, and what your name is, if you're going to be taking food like that."

"What I'm doing here?" the floatzel replied, sounding as if she found the question silly. "I saw that you guys had food and I wanted to come over. My name is Alex by the way, what's yours?"

"Alex?" Spark repeated, sounding surprised. "That's a human name! Do you have a trainer?"

The floatzel smiled and shook her head. "Nope. I used to, a long time ago. But she brought me here as a buizel and let me go one day, not sure why. I didn't mind though, I like it here."

Spark's ears twitched as he regarded the floatzel with curiosity. "A trainer brought you here? I thought they didn't come to these places…" The floatzel nodded in response and Spark remained looking confused.

"Hey!" the floatzel shouted, as if suddenly getting an idea. "Why don't I come with you? I've always wanted to travel, but doing it alone doesn't sound like much fun."

"Don't you have anything else to do?" Blazefang growled, still glaring at the floatzel.

Snowcrystal couldn't really agree with his views. Here was a pokémon, offering them help with open arms, who probably did know a lot about the lands around them-or at least she had to know more than they did.

Spark just shrugged. "Well, you obviously aren't here to attack us, so sure, why not?"

Blazefang rolled his eyes and the other pokémon looked skeptical, though it had become obvious now that the floatzel meant them no harm.

"Thank you!" Alex cried, lifting Spark completely off his feet. "I'll be helpful! I know the best ways to find water on the way to the mountain! I know all the streams and I know the good places to catch prey, and I-"

"That's great," Spark muttered. "Please put me down." The floatzel did so swiftly, leaving Spark sprawled out on the grass.

"We wouldn't mind having you come along," Snowcrystal told the water type with a smile, trying to be friendly while the others weren't. "We could use a pokémon like you to help us out along the way!"

"Yeah, sure," Blazefang muttered sarcastically. "Let every random pokémon join us, that's real smart!" He walked away angrily, but Alex didn't seem to notice or care.

"We're going to rest until tomorrow," Nightshade told the floatzel. "Then we'll head to the mountain. If you really can help us find water and food along the way, we would appreciate it."

Alex nodded vigorously. "Of course I will!" she cried excitedly.

* * *

For the next few hours, the group rested in silence, apart from the splashes Alex made as she jumped in and out of the lake every so often. By now most of the group had gotten used to her presence, apart from Thunder, who still kept her distance from everyone else. Alex and Spark had, surprisingly, began getting along very well-each telling the other about their experiences with trainers and living in the wild every time Alex took a break from swimming.

Snowcrystal had been lying by the edge of the lake, half asleep for a while, watching the sun set in the distance. Rosie was asleep near her and the others had either wandered off in search of more food or were just resting by themselves. Judging by the looks of her friends, Alex seemed like the only one enthusiastic about the journey coming up for them-even Wildflame was acting nervous.

She was close to dozing off when water splashed over her coat, jolting her back into full wakefulness. "Huh?" she murmured groggily, opening her eyes to see Alex sprinting past her across the grass, water droplets flying from her fur.

"What is she doing?" muttered Rosie as gave Snowcrystal a half-asleep glance-obviously the floatzel had woken her up as well.

"What time are we leaving tomorrow?" Alex cried, beaming at the group of pokémon clustered around the lake edge.

"Early in the morning," Wildflame replied, sounding annoyed even though she was less tired than most of the others-as a dark type, the nighttime and moonlight gave her strength.

"Sounds great!" Alex replied. "I'll make sure I'm up early!"

"Let's hope she tires herself out and sleeps in so we can leave her…" Snowcrystal heard Blazefang mutter from nearby.

Snowcrystal sighed. Okay, maybe Alex was an odd pokémon, a little annoying, but she could offer them valuable help. Surely having her around would be…

"Hey! Who are you?"

At Alex's shout, Snowcrystal jumped up in alarm, only to find that the pokémon the floatzel was talking to was Thunder. Alarmed, Snowcrystal watched as Alex bounded up toward the scyther on all fours-Thunder stood up and lifted her scythes as she approached.

The floatzel stopped a few feet from Thunder, looking at her curiously. Snowcrystal edged closer to the two. "Uh, Alex? I don't think you should…"

"Whoa, what happened to you?" the water type exclaimed loudly, leaning forward to get a better look at the cuts on Thunder's back and side. A couple moments later and she had to leap back to avoid being cut open by one of the scyther's blades, which was only slowed due to Thunder's current weaknesses. "Hey, calm down, will you? I didn't attack _you_! And some of those cuts are infected, by the way," she added with a look of disgust.

This somewhat surprised Snowcrystal-Alex didn't seem quite as friendly around Thunder. Snowcrystal was about to say something when Thunder took another sudden lunge at the floatzel, this time grazing her arm with a scythe. At this point, Alex seemed to get the message, and gave Thunder an annoyed glare before bounding back into the lake.

Thunder glared after the floatzel and then walked further away from the lake, leaving Snowcrystal standing alone and hoping that there wouldn't be any more problems between the two pokémon in the future. It was a hope that she knew she probably couldn't count on.

* * *

Katie made sure Justin was busy trying to start a fire for the night before she slipped away quietly, leaving him alone with her electabuzz, which she had brought with her before heading out into the wilderness, to protect him. She walked toward a clump of trees that would hide what she was doing in case Justin came to look for her-she didn't want him spotting her before she knew he was coming. She felt bad for leaving the scyther in its pokéball for several hours since she had caught it, but she hadn't gotten a chance to slip away alone until now. She wasn't quite ready to tell Justin yet.

Stepping behind the trees, she took a deep breath and looked around worriedly. Justin would be wondering where she was soon. She had to make this quick. Taking the luxury ball out of her backpack-she hadn't dared to put it on her belt in case Justin noticed it-she threw it a few feet in front of her and watched the scyther materialize on the ground.

He appeared in a lying-down position, looking too weak to be able to sit or stand, and looked up at her feebly. Katie wondered if this scyther recognized her, but there was no way to tell; she couldn't read the expression in the pokémon's eyes. Her gaze traveled briefly over his body, and she noticed how thin he was. She tried not to focus on it too much-she didn't like looking at the scyther's wounds.

"Um…hello," she began, wondering if the scyther would even care that she was talking to him, "I guess…I'm your new trainer." She paused-that had sounded weird, as if she expected to train this pokémon. There was no way that would be a possibility, and it probably wouldn't be even if the scyther recovered-he might never want to battle again. She knew she wouldn't, if she had gotten injuries like that. And from what Nurse Joy had said, she suspected that these injuries happened in some sort of trainer battle, and the opponent had gone _much_ too far. "Well, I guess I'm not your _trainer__…_" she continued, "but I'm here to take care of you."

The scyther gave her a knowing look, as if he was listening, but there was a wary look in his eyes, one of mistrust.

"Here," she said, looking through her backpack for something else. She had, of course, brought medicine for her pokémon in case they got injured, including medicine to help with pain. She had gotten a type of medicine that was shaped like pokémon treats, and even though they were supposedly for baby pokémon who wouldn't eat the regular medicine (she had gotten them for Shinx), Pidgeot seemed to like them. She opened the box. The "treats" were shaped like random things-pokéballs, berries, and a few random pokémon. It was silly, but it would do the job and, hopefully, help relieve the scyther of some of his pain, even if it wasn't much.

She picked up one in her hand and looked at the scyther, hesitating to approach it. She knew that this pokémon was, or at least used to be, dangerous. Getting down on her knees, she moved forward, hoping that the scyther wouldn't try to hurt her. She held her hand out towards his head. "Eat this," she told him. "It will make you feel better."

To her surprise, the pokémon showed no sign of aggression at all. He obediently ate the medicine, though she noticed that he did so with some difficulty. Pleasantly surprised, she reached into her backpack again and got out a potion. "Okay, this might sting a little bit…"

She was meant with an agonized scyther cry the moment she sprayed the potion. The pokémon's eyes went wide with shock and he tried to move away from her, not having much success.

"Uh, sorry," she muttered, dropping the potion. "I guess…I should…wait until the medicine…starts working…"

The scyther didn't give her any indication that he had heard, but he had stopped screaming and was now staring at the part of his shoulder she had sprayed the potion on.

Katie hoped that Justin was too far away to have heard the noise. She realized that Justin might be wondering where she was by now. "Well, I guess I'll have to do what I can now…" She had brought plenty of bandages along in case her pokémon needed it, and she began trying to use them to cover the worst of the scyther's wounds. Occasionally he would growl or hiss in pain, but he didn't do anything to threaten her. She began to wonder if this pokémon had begun to change from the vicious and mean scyther he was in the past.

"Well, that's all I can do for now," Katie told the pokémon, well aware that Justin might show up at any minute, "I hope you can trust me…your trainer after Justin must not have been very nice. And…I know what you did before was…very wrong…but…_I_ believe you can change." She gave the scyther a smile, but he just stared emptily at her.

"Okay, return," she whispered, holding up the luxury ball which shot out a beam of light which enveloped the scyther and then disappeared into the ball.

Standing up, she turned and headed back to where Justin was waiting. She found him in just the same place she had left him, staring at the trees of the forest swaying in the breeze in the distance. He was probably wondering if the growlithe tracks they were following actually belonged to the white growlithe.

"Hi Justin!" she said, in a voice that sounded a bit too cheerful, she realized. "I was just over there by that little group of trees. I was just…um…"

"Look, I don't need to know about every time you have to go to the bathroom," Justin muttered, sounding annoyed.

"Oh, um…yeah, never mind," she muttered quickly, glad that Justin didn't seem suspicious at all. She went to set her backpack down by his, and as she bent down, she realized that she had placed the luxury ball on her belt with the other pokéballs without realizing it. She un-clipped it and stuffed it into her backpack hurriedly. Her electabuzz glanced up at her as if he knew that she was trying to hide something, but she paid him no attention. She was far too concerned with how Justin would react when he found out about her scyther for the moment.

* * *

Scytheclaw was now completely alone. He had returned from the pool with the small statues to find that Moonlight had been planning something in secret. He had won over most of the pokémon at last. Scytheclaw had been powerless against their numbers, and he soon had to accept that he was no longer their leader.

But he could_never_ accept that. That very day, he had left the canyon, alone, and though he now realized that he had nowhere to go, he could not bear the idea of turning back. He didn't feel like he could face any of those pokémon again, not now that he was powerless. All he had left to think about now was the strange power he'd felt ever since fainting at the pool. After waking up, he had been sure to throw the gem back into the water as far as he could, but now, he wondered if there had been something more to it.

It was the thoughts of the stone that kept him distracted, letting him dwell less on the fact that he had just lost everything.

The beating of wings brought Scytheclaw back to his senses. Above him, a pidgeotto was circling. He was just pondering the idea of trying to catch it when, surprisingly, it landed in front of him (though at a safe distance). Scytheclaw sensed that this pidgeotto was out of the ordinary-it looked stronger, tougher, and it seemed as if it would be too fast for even him to catch, so he didn't try.

"What do you want?" Scytheclaw snapped, glaring at the flying type through narrowed eyes.

"I'm merely here to ask a few questions," the pidgeotto said slyly. "I come from a group of pokémon led by a vaporeon called Cyclone. He wishes to wage war on the humans…"

As the pidgeotto explained, Scytheclaw realized immediately that he was talking about the army that passed through his old home. As much as he despised the army, he couldn't help but find the idea of fighting against the humans, the species that had evolved him against his will, very appealing…

He still hated those army pokémon though.

"Tell that idiot I'm not interesting in becoming his servant," Scytheclaw growled. "And I thought he left days ago-he should be far away by now! Is he that desperate for followers to send you looking for them back here?"

"He is not far from here, actually," the pidgeotto replied. "Our army passed by that forest and are resting now," he added, as if there were more of a reason as to why they had stopped moving that he didn't want to give away.

Scytheclaw looked at the group of trees making up the forest not far away. He couldn't see what was on the other side of it, but whatever it was; it was bound to be better than passing the forest by and wandering into that army. "Why are you even talking to me?" he growled at the bird pokémon, "you're wasting your time."

"I have one more question," the flying type began, ignoring the threat. "Have you seen a houndour recently? Full grown, but not close to evolution, or maybe he's one of those ones who simply doesn't want to evolve, very red fur color on his muzzle instead of orange or orange-red? Seen any houndour like that?"

An image floated into Scytheclaw's mind of Blazefang, the houndour that the heracross and his friends had brought along. He fit the description perfectly, but the houndour had not caused him any grief-it was the army threatening his home that had. It would be best not to help them at all. Giving the pidgeotto one last glare, Scytheclaw turned and walked off toward the forest.

"_No_."

* * *

It was early morning when Snowcrystal and her friends were ready to set off toward the mountain. A few of the others had managed to hunt, and after they were done eating, they decided to take a quick rest, or, in Spark and Alex's case, go for a swim.

It was hard for Snowcrystal to relax with the sounds of Alex and Spark laughing and shouting to one another as they chased each other in the shallows of the lake. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Stormblade, wondering if he was all right, and wondering whether the human who caught him would really be able to help. _He has a better chance with the help of that human than he does out here with us…_ she reminded herself, though it didn't make her feel much better.

"Snowcrystal!"

Turning, she realized that it was Rosie calling to her. The ninetales was limping in her direction, and she got up and walked over to her. "What is it, Rosie?" she asked.

"Well, I was thinking," Rosie began, "I mean, I just realized that…if Alex is coming with us, she should know _why_ we need to go to the mountains so much. I mean, I don't know if we should go into the whole 'Forbidden Attacks' thing, but…"

"HEY!" Spark yelled from the direction of the lake, distracting both of them. Snowcrystal looked to see the two of them in deeper water, Spark looking as though Alex had just pushed him in.

His response was only a loud laugh from the floatzel. From what she could see, Snowcrystal thought Spark looked rather angry.

"Okay, that's it…" the jolteon cried, and suddenly the water lit up with a burst of electricity and Alex cried out in pain before sinking under the water. Spark had a triumphant grin on his face, which didn't last long, for in the next moment Alex had come flying out of the water straight toward Spark, water streaming behind her. She cannoned into the jolteon with such force from the aqua jet attack that Spark went flying out of the water and they both landed on the shore.

Snowcrystal was startled by the sudden violent attack, and she was going to go see if Spark was all right and to get Alex to stop when both pokémon stood up, looked at each other for a moment, and then burst out laughing.

"Idiots…" Rosie muttered, rolling her eyes. "I'll never understand those pokémon. At least Spark has someone else to bother now."

Snowcrystal had other things on her mind. "Hey, Alex! Come over here!" she cried.

The floatzel bounded up to her with surprising speed and came to a sudden halt right in front of her. "Yes?" she asked.

"I thought you might like to know why we're headed to the mountain," she began, "We-"

"Why does it matter?" Alex interrupted. "It's an adventure! It doesn't need to have a reason!"

"Well, actually," Snowcrystal replied, "it does matter. The well-being of…maybe even the_lives_ of some growlithe are at stake. We're looking for Articuno…he's the only one that can help us, and we heard that he went past that mountain…"

"Oh, I think he lives there," Alex stated with a smile. "I've heard from several pokémon that he lives at the top of that mountain. That's why there's still so much snow!"

Snowcrystal felt her hopes become instantly renewed. If what Alex said was true, then her search might finally be over. "You're sure?" she asked, feeling much more energetic now-she wanted to go to find Articuno as soon as possible. She had taken far too much time already.

"Yep!" the floatzel replied, sounding as if it was the most simple thing in the world. "What do you need Articuno for, anyway?"

"Well…" Snowcrystal began, "do you think I could tell you on the way? I really think we ought to get going now."

In a matter of minutes, the entire group was heading toward the mountains, Spark and Alex bounding ahead in the lead. Spark had taken over in telling Alex about their quest so far, even going so far as telling her about the Forbidden Attacks.

Snowcrystal felt as if her energy was being renewed with each step-she now had a much greater hope of finding Articuno than she could ever have asked for. They finally knew where he was at last.

* * *

That same morning, another group was getting ready to leave. Katie and Justin had found more growlithe footprints, and they led very clearly in one direction. Poochyena, of course, could easily follow the growlithe's scent.

There were signs of other pokémon, too, but Katie wasn't concerned with them. She just hoped that the ones that looked like scyther footprints really weren't. Yesterday and throughout the night, she had taken care of the scyther in secret-she still wasn't sure how to tell Justin about all this.

She also wasn't sure what to do about the scyther either. He wouldn't eat the pokémon food she gave him, and she could tell that he was getting weaker. But at least the pokémon medicine seemed to be helping. Looking up ahead of her, she watched Justin standing beside Poochyena as the small pokémon ran around his legs, eager to begin following the scent. Sighing, she walked over to them, trying not to act as though there was something bothering her.

Darkfang watched the two humans leave as he stayed crouched behind a large group of bushes. He had followed their scent from the place where Stormblade was supposed to be, and there was only one explanation for what had happened-one of those humans had captured Stormblade.

He wasn't quite sure what to do now, but he knew that he would have to tell Stormblade's friends once they came back…if they did come back. He really had no idea whether or not Articuno had settled on the mountain at all.

With a weary sigh, he started to head back, then quickly changed his mind. He still felt partially responsible for Stormblade, and the least he could do was make sure these humans were decent to him. Turning back around to face the humans, Darkfang began following them slowly, careful not to let himself be seen.

_To be continued..._


	44. The Start of the Mountain Journey

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 44-The Start of the Mountain Journey**

As the group traveled and got ever closer to reaching the mountain, Snowcrystal began to notice that it felt colder. It was a welcome feeling to her, but she could tell that a few of the others were a bit unnerved by it, and Thunder was constantly shivering. She knew the cold winds were coming from the direction of the mountain, and wondered if the cold had something to do with Articuno, or whether the mountain was just naturally that way. The massive stone monolith ahead of them loomed ever closer, and Snowcrystal hoped that they would reach it by the end of the day.

"There's a stream over that way," Alex called from up ahead, standing and pointing as her fur was whipped around by the wind. "It'll take a little while to get there, but there should be lots of prey…"

"It's too far out of our way," Wildflame replied crossly, narrowing her eyes against the wind. "We need to get to the mountain by sundown."

"Well, all right, if that's what you want," Alex answered with a shrug, before bounding on ahead again.

Snowcrystal had to admit that she agreed with Wildflame, but if prey was going to be scarce…maybe Alex _was _right…

"So uh, Snowcrystal?"

Snowcrystal turned in surprise at realizing that it was Spark speaking from up ahead. The jolteon looked worried about something. He paused to let the others move on ahead and allow Snowcrystal to catch up with him. "What?" she asked him, confused.

"Well, I was thinking," he began, "when we find Articuno and you go back…where should the rest of us go?"

"Oh…" Snowcrystal whispered. She had been so distracted by the thought of finally reaching Articuno that she hadn't been thinking about that much. She knew that while the thought of never seeing any of these pokémon again was painful, there was no way they could live by her mountain home-it was not a suitable habitat for any of them. "Well, maybe you could stay around here," she suggested reluctantly, "I mean, it seems like a good place…"

Spark shook his head. "No," he replied firmly. "I wouldn't want to stay here. Maybe some of the others would want to stay, but I don't. You see, I'm beginning to think I'm not cut out to be a wild pokémon."

"Why do you say that?" Snowcrystal asked, a bit surprised.

"This whole wild life…it just seems unnatural to me," the jolteon whispered back as the two of them began following the others again slowly. "Stormblade told me I would love it, but I just don't. I'm not meant to be a wild pokémon."

"So you think you would be happier with a trainer?"

"Maybe…" Spark sighed.

"Well," Snowcrystal began, thinking back to what she had seen the day before, "I'd miss you, but if that's what you really want, maybe we could find that trainer who caught Stormblade, and…and you could join her?"

Spark shook his head. "I didn't say I wanted to go with just any old trainer…" he muttered.

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what else to say, and simply fell silent.

"I miss Justin," Spark admitted suddenly. "If anything…I'd want to go with a trainer who was like him." He paused for a moment. "But at the same time, I don't want to leave the group until I have to. Do you think…do you think that when we head back to your mountain, that you could leave me at the city? I'm sure there are lots of trainers willing to adopt a jolteon…I could find one…"

"Are you sure…that that's what you want?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Maybe…" came Spark's uncertain reply.

"You don't have to decide now," she told him. Some part of her still strongly wished that he'd change his mind, even though she knew that in the end it really couldn't affect her-Spark would have to find somewhere to live and it couldn't be near her mountain. She sighed. "You still have a lot of time to think about it."

"Yeah," Spark replied in a distracted sort of voice. "Yeah, I do…" He increased his pace a bit, walking at normal speed and distancing himself from Snowcrystal once again.

The growlithe watched him go, hoping that Spark would be able to choose the right thing for him when the time finally came. She hoped that somehow, everything would work out right for all of them, though whether or not it did…how would she know, if she was to return home with Articuno and leave some of the others behind?

* * *

Katie's persian materialized in a flash of bright red light, blinking in confusion and looking up at her trainer with a puzzled expression upon realizing that not only was there no opponent to fight and the other pokémon weren't out of their pokéballs too, but there was a strange pokémon scent she couldn't identify. The most noticeable scent besides the scent of the pokémon itself was of sickness and foul-smelling wounds, and when she turned around to look at the source of the smell she was surprised to see that there was a strange scyther lying on the grass nearby, one that she could tell was badly wounded. The bandages weren't enough to hide all the wounds covering his body, and something about the way they looked and smelled deeply unnerved her. She had been to many pokémon centers. She had seen horrific injuries from wild pokémon or accidents in battle. But nothing like this. This was…different, somehow. Wrong. Unnatural. She turned to her trainer in astonishment.

"Look, Persian," Katie told the pokémon, reaching down to rest her hand on the catlike pokémon's head. "I want you to go and see if you can catch something, all right? Scyther was a wild pokémon; he's probably only used to eating fresh meat."

Persian just stared blankly at her trainer. This was one of those times she wished there wasn't a language barrier between herself and humans. One thing was for sure; she certainly didn't like the idea of being responsible for feeding another injured pokémon-she already had had enough of that with Pidgeot. She glanced around, wondering if Justin was nearby, but she didn't see him.

"I guess I should explain things more, huh?" she muttered.

"Yes, I think you should," Persian muttered with annoyance, her fur bristling. Even if Katie couldn't understand her words, she was sure the meaning was clear enough.

"Ok, well," Katie began, glancing over at the injured pokémon. "This is our newest member of the team, Scyther."

Persian glanced over at the bug type again. Scyther gave no reaction at all-he was still in the same position she had first seen him in-lying down and staring blankly off into the distance at nothing in particular. Even with his injuries aside, he wasn't very impressive. He was larger than Persian remembered the scyther she had battled to be, but much too thin and weak looking to be strong. Whatever Katie meant by 'member of the team', he certainly wasn't going to be helping them fight.

"He was Justin's pokémon when he was a trainer, but I found him like that…and I couldn't just leave him there… You'll help him and share your food, won't you?" Katie asked.

Persian looked into her trainer's eyes-she had always had this odd thing about helping wild pokémon. The feline pokémon had watched her care for several injured or sick pokémon she had found in the wild over her four years of being a trainer. However, she'd never seen Katie try taking care of something like a scyther, let alone one this far gone. "All right, I suppose," Persian sighed reluctantly. "But you'd better make this worth it once we get back to a city."

Katie smiled and gave her pokémon a quick hug. "Thanks," she told the normal type, running her hand across Persian's head again.

The catlike pokémon purred, then stood up and began walking in the direction of some nearby trees, the cool wind moving from the direction of the mountain ruffling her fur. If it made her trainer happy and got her some sort of reward, she wouldn't mind tossing a few scraps to the injured pokémon. At least it would keep it from dying-probably, she thought, and Katie wouldn't be so distraught over having one of her 'patients' pass away. Even if Persian herself was rather indifferent to the other pokémon on Katie's team, she didn't want to have to go through _that_again. Catching the scent of pidgeotto on the breeze, Persian pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and bounded forward, hoping for a good hunt.

Katie watched her pokémon go with a feeling of regret-she would have liked to have Persian or one of the others around when she finally told Justin that she had used up the last space in her current party, and she had decided that that time was going to be now.

She looked over at Scyther, who was as still as ever. She hesitated a moment before going to find Justin-she wasn't sure if leaving an injured pokémon all alone was really a good idea. Then again, adult scyther had no predators, so she didn't think he'd be in any danger. She waited a moment longer before turning away and walking back to where Justin was resting with their supplies.

"Guess what, Justin?" she said cheerfully as she reached the small area where they had stopped to take a break. "I found more growlithe tracks-they're still headed toward that mountain." She had, in fact, found more tracks, and she figured (or at least hoped) that this would make Justin a bit happier.

Only, Justin didn't look happier. "We still don't know if it's the white growlithe," he mumbled in a dull voice.

"Uh…well…" Katie paused for a moment. She decided that lingering on the growlithe subject wasn't a good idea and would probably only make things worse. Might as well get straight to the point. "I…I caught another pokémon."

Justin's eyes went wide and he leaped to his feet, his face lit up in a smile. "You mean you've caught it?" he asked. "You've caught the white one?" His face fell when he saw Katie's expression. "You mean it wasn't the white one? What was it? A normal growlithe? Because, well, I don't know, maybe that's a clue…maybe the white one belongs to a group of normal growlithe, and-"

"I caught a scyther."

"You…_what_?" Justin's expression changed from a look of disappointment to a look of horror. He suddenly looked extremely pale. "But…but why…I thought you said you were going to wait to catch more pokémon until-"

"Well, this one was injured," Katie sighed, forcing herself to go on. "I couldn't just leave it there…a second time."

"A second…_what_?"

"I found the scyther I helped the rangers bring to the pokémon center." She didn't bother mentioning that the scyther had been Justin's-her friend would realize that clearly enough.

Justin looked completely stunned. "What? What are you talking about?" he cried, looking furious. "You're lying! That scyther's dead. Blown up into a thousand pieces. You honestly don't think it could have survived that blast, do you? It's dead. _DEAD__!_"

"No it's not," Katie replied, "it's…it's alive. Maybe Team Rocket had something to do with it, I don't know. And I'm not sure how it got here, but I know it's the same one. It said so on my pokédex…" She reached for the pokédex to show him, but he wasn't listening.

"Why on earth would you catch any old scyther you found around here?" Justin cried. "Did you forget that scyther are dangerous? And that we were supposed to be trying to capture the growlithe?"

"Forget?" Katie replied. "Of course not! But I couldn't just leave an injured pokémon all alone! What about those shinx we found that were injured by poachers? You wouldn't have wanted me to leave them there."

"That was different!" Justin retorted.

"Look, just let me show you the scyther," Katie told him. "You'll understand why I need to help it."

"Don't let it out of the pokéball!" Justin looked horribly alarmed at the thought.

"It's already out," she told him, pointing to where she had just walked from. "It can't hurt you, you know…" Without waiting for a response, she began walking toward where Scyther was, Justin following her slowly and rather stiffly, still seeming in shock about the whole thing. Katie wasn't even entirely sure he really believed her.

"You can't keep a dangerous pokémon like that when Pidgeot's injured!" Justin was saying. "If Pidgeot's killed we'll have to get back to the city on foot! And what if it hurts one of us? I don't even have pokémon!"

"If it makes you feel better I'll keep one of my pokémon out to protect you from harm," Katie told him, wishing he'd calm down. She supposed there was no use trying to explain to him that Scyther was too weak to stand, let alone attack someone.

Justin didn't speak again until they reached the place where Scyther lay. Immediately, both former trainer and pokémon froze. For the first time, Katie saw Scyther look someone straight in the eyes-and that person was Justin. And Katie knew in that moment that any doubts Justin had about this being his scyther were gone-it was clearly the same one they had stumbled across before, and it was giving Justin a look of pure hatred.

Justin wrenched his gaze away from the scyther and slowly turned to her, his voice was oddly calm, which unnerved her. "Why would you do this?" he asked. "I told you that pokémon was dangerous…I told you what it did to that girl, and what it did to _me_! _Why_ did you capture it?"

"Because…I couldn't just leave it there…I had to help…it would have died…"

"It doesn't deserve to live."

"Justin, it's a _pokémon_. It may not have known that what it was doing was wrong!"

"It was a _trained_ pokémon. It knew perfectly well that killing humans was the worst thing it could do!"

"But…" Katie wasn't sure what else to say. Justin did have a point, she realized. "I know," she sighed. "But that doesn't mean he can't change. And with those injuries I think he's been through far more than what he deserved…he seemed just fine around me. I don't think he's the same violent pokémon he used to be."

"It's a scyther! They don't change! Violent is just the way they are! And that one is more dangerous than usual." He gave Katie a glare that made her cringe. "Get….rid…of…it…_now_…"

Katie was about to respond when a meowing sound reached her ears. She turned to see Persian returning, holding a pidgeotto in her mouth. The normal type walked over to Scyther and set the prey down beside him, looking to her trainer for approval.

"What is she doing?" Justin cried, staring at Persian until he suddenly understood. "YOU SENT YOUR PERSAIN TO KILL POKEMON FOR THAT THING?"

"Well, yes," Katie replied. "Persian needs to hunt, and Scyther wouldn't eat the pokémon food I-"

"If it didn't eat the food you offered it was the stupid thing's own fault!" Justin screamed. "Why waste life on something that's practically dying?"

"Justin, Persian needs to hunt for herself anyway…do you want us to run out of pokémon food? I don't see any harm in Persian sharing..." Her voice was faltering now, barely above a whisper.

"Then why don't you let Persian just share the food with the _other_pokémon?" Justin growled. "You know, the ones who still have a chance to survive?" He walked over to where Persian was standing, and the catlike pokémon shied away and walked over to Katie, startled at seeing Justin like this. "I suggest you chuck that pokéball into the lake and get rid of it once and for all!" Justin shouted.

"I'm not going to do that," Katie said firmly. "I'm not going to get rid of him…I won't let an injured pokémon suffer."

Justin gave her a look of absolute loathing, but didn't reply. "Well then don't blame me when you or your pokémon get hurt!" he growled. He then turned around and sped off in the other direction, toward their makeshift camp. Katie looked at Persian, who seemed just as shocked as she was, and she knew that the normal type was very fond of Justin.

"Follow him, ok?" she asked, and her pokémon briefly rubbed her head against her leg before bounding off in the direction Justin had left.

Now standing alone, Katie couldn't help but wonder if Justin was right. But then again, the scyther had been perfectly calm around her. But it had still looked at Justin angrily…

Whatever the reason, she thought, she had decided to help this pokémon, and that was what she was going to do. He'd already suffered a lot more than enough for what he'd done. Maybe being shown kindness would make Scyther a better pokémon after all.

Or at least, she hoped it would.

* * *

Nighttime had fallen upon the traveling group, and they had at last reached the foot of the mountain. It was surprisingly cold, and many of the pokémon found it difficult to sleep. Snowcrystal was one of them, but in her case, it was not because of the cold.

The small growlithe kept looking up at the mountain. It reminded her so much of her home, and she could only wonder what was happening to the other growlithe back in her own territory. Had the houndour driven them out by now? Or did she still have time? There probably wasn't much use worrying, she thought. No matter what, she had to try and help them. She couldn't loose hope…not now that she was so close…

Surprisingly, she managed to drift off into sleep. In her dreams, she was running around near the base of the mountain, which in the dream was the mountain where her clan lived, trying to stop Blazefang from firing a Shadowflare attack at the peak and melting the ice…

She woke with a start in the misty light of early dawn. The other pokémon were still asleep-from the looks of it, she was the only one awake. It suddenly struck her that it was foolish of them not to have taken turns keeping watch during the night, and it was a mistake she intended to fix later on. They had been lucky that night, but there was no telling what sort of dangers could be waiting for them on the steep mountain slopes.

After a moment, Spark began to stir. The jolteon opened his eyes and sat up groggily, looking around him. "Hi Snowcrystal," he said tiredly, and she was relieved to see that he sounded much more like his normal self.

Nearby, Alex also stirred, and in a few moments she had opened her eyes and bounded to her feet, calling, "wake up everyone! Today's the day we get to meet a legendary!"

"Don't sound so sure," Blazefang grumbled as he sat up slowly, scratching his ear with a hind paw.

Snowcrystal didn't pay much attention to Blazefang; she was pretty much used to his negative attitude by now. The others were all getting up and whispering about the mountain journey to come…all except one. Thunder was still asleep.

"Thunder!" Snowcrystal called to the scyther, unwilling to get any closer to her in case she was in a bad mood. "Wake up! It's time to go!"

Thunder lifted her head quicker than Snowcrystal expected-it actually startled her a bit-and stared at her with what looked like a mixture of surprise and loathing. Snowcrystal flinched, but tried to keep her voice steady as she addressed the scyther. "We need to get going," she told the bug type as nicely as she could. "We're going to start climbing the mountain."

Thunder just stared at her a moment before standing up and turning away, her gazed fixed on the mountain. From where she stood, it seemed to Snowcrystal like Thunder was shivering violently, though she couldn't be sure. She was half wondering if she should mention something to Nightshade when a voice from behind startled her.

"Er…Snowcrystal…can I talk to you?"

She turned around to see _Blazefang_standing there, looking anxious and worried, his paws fidgeting in the dry grass. As if this wasn't surprising enough, the look in his eyes certainly was-he looked frightened, wary, and from the way he was acting, it looked like whatever he wanted to talk about was important, and it wasn't going to be easy for him to talk about it either.

"Why do you want to talk to _me_?" she couldn't help blurting out before thinking.

Blazefang didn't seem to feel like answering directly. "It needs to be you," he growled, though his growl sounded more worried than aggressive. "You're the leader of this group-the others follow you. Now come on, we need to talk…"

Snowcrystal glanced at the rest of the group who were still talking to one another in quiet whispers (or in Alex's case, loud yells). She turned and followed Blazefang reluctantly, feeling slightly confused that he had referred to her as a 'leader.' She had certainly never felt like one, least of all now when her goal was in sight and she didn't need to lead anyone anywhere, and after which their group would likely split up. She was jolted away from her confused thoughts when Blazefang stopped and looked at her expectantly. She wondered what she was supposed to say, and merely asked in an impatient manner, "okay, what is it?"

"When we were in the cave," Blazefang said quickly, still sounding nervous. "That weavile…Shadeclaw…said that the ice Forbidden Attack…Deathfreeze…was used by an ice type pokémon a season ago. Think about when Articuno left, Snowcrystal. I think…it could have been him."

Snowcrystal had been expecting something along the lines of Blazefang coming to tell her that he was ready to leave the group and go off on his own, or even to try and get her to ask the others to leave him alone, but this completely threw her off-she had to take a moment and repeat what he had said in her mind before the words started to make sense.

"It…it could have been any other ice type, right?" she replied, her voice shaking much more than she would have liked it to, especially considering that although the others had mentioned Shadeclaw's words about Deathfreeze to her, the thought had never occurred to her before.

"I don't know," Blazefang replied, flinching slightly. "Shadeclaw wouldn't mention the pokémon's species…but he said that it took many pokémon to stop him and control him…because he'd gone insane. If he…"

"Wouldn't we have seen destruction from Deathfreeze around here if he had?" Snowcrystal asked, still trying to tell herself that Blazefang was only making a wild shot in the dark with this theory.

"Not really," said Blazefang, almost reluctantly. "The pokémon had to take him far away, using sleep-inducing attacks every time he showed signs of unleashing the Forbidden Attack. For all we know, the place they took him could be here. And Alex said that several pokémon told her that he lives up there-"

"I still don't think we should assume something like that," Snowcrystal retorted, interrupting him. "Darkfang saw Articuno…I highly doubt he was captive at the time…"

"Snowcrystal," Blazefang interrupted, his eyes serious, "about the whole 'going up the mountain to find him' thing. Rethink this. Darkfang may have seen Articuno before it happened…or before he was stopped. I know it sounds crazy but everything fits-why else would he leave us so suddenly, with no explanation?"

Snowcrystal didn't reply. Lingering doubts about the success of her mission were building in the back of her mind. They couldn't stop now, not when they had come so close. And even if Blazefang was right, Articuno was of no harm to them if he was being guarded, was he? They had to try-turning back now would waste everything they had all gone through. And what if Blazefang was only saying this to keep her away from Articuno? To help his own pack?

Still…she thought, the others deserved to know the risk, if there was any to begin with. As crazy as it sounded, she should probably tell everyone about Blazefang's theory before they left; even with the slightest chance that Articuno might possess Deathfreeze, the others deserved to know. Snowcrystal became vaguely aware that Blazefang was still standing there, and told him firmly, "I won't turn back, but I will tell the others. Don't accept it as fact, though. I for one am certainly not going to." She gave him a suspicious glance before heading back to the group, leaving Blazefang looking helpless.

* * *

"Articuno…with Deathfreeze?" Spark cried as Snowcrystal had finished speaking, his eyes looking wide. "Nuh-uh. No way. Legendaries are smarter than that! They're, well…legendary!"

"Weren't the legendaries the cause of the Forbidden Attacks, according to legend?" Rosie asked.

"In some versions, yes," Spark replied with an air of importance, "but not in the one I was commonly told. They were just ordinary species of pokémon…ones with powers…"

"Regardless, would a legendary really not take a hint when some freaky stone starts giving him powers?" Rosie retorted.

"I think Blazefang could be right…" Redclaw spoke up hesitantly, but then added, "but he could be wrong…"

"Huh…a legendary with Deathfreeze?" Alex cried in a cheerful manner. "Well, that certainly puts an edge on things, right?"

"We don't need _you_ around anymore," Rosie growled at her. "This isn't exactly any of your business." To her annoyance, Alex didn't seem to notice or care that she had even spoken.

"I think Blazefang just wants us to stay away so he can find Articuno for himself," Thunder spoke up. Everyone stared at her in silence; Blazefang looked horrified. "Not that it's any concern to me," she added, "but you probably have no Forbidden Attack to worry about. Might as well throw the traitor," she glanced at Blazefang, "out and just get on with your original plan."

Rosie's fur stood on end as she turned to glare at Blazefang. "That makes a surprising lot of sense," she snarled. "You were pretty darn stupid to believe that we'd just give up after all that!"

"Well, worrying about it won't do much good," Nightshade told the others, standing up and placing himself between Blazefang and Rosie. "Like Snowcrystal said, we should still be prepared even if the chance is small. And the ice type with the attack is apparently guarded. There's little risk of a Forbidden Attack being used, and whatever happens, at least we will know where Articuno is and hopefully why he had left…" He cast a glance at Blazefang, who seemed like he had already accepted Articuno being able to use Deathfreeze as fact.

"Who cares?" Thunder growled. "Let's just find the damn bird and be done with it."

"It's not like you have to come," Spark muttered, turning his head to glare at the scyther. "Stay behind if you like."

Thunder opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again, letting out a hiss of annoyance instead. Spark gave her a smug smirk-he knew as well as anyone else that Thunder couldn't hunt well even without being injured-she depended entirely on the group for food.

However, Snowcrystal wasn't sure that dragging her up a mountain in that condition was a good idea either, though neither was leaving her alone when she thought about it.

"Let's get going then," Redclaw sighed, standing up. If anything, he looked like he wanted to start walking now to stop a fight from breaking out-Rosie looked ready to rip Blazefang's fur off and Thunder was giving Spark a glare that looked as though she wanted to kill him.

As the others all stood up and watched Redclaw expectantly, Snowcrystal wondered if there was really a chance that Blazefang's speculation could be right. The others seemed skeptical enough to believe it was mere coincidence that the ice type had found the Forbidden Attack at around the same time Articuno left, but even though Snowcrystal felt she should feel the same…a small, lingering doubt at the back of her mind told her that the events were _too_ much of a coincidence. And Blazefang had been right in that everything _did_ seem to fit.

As she followed the others, she forced herself to try and think of other things instead and wait to find out for herself, but the thought still lingered-what if Articuno really had gone insane?

_What would she do then?_

_To be continued..._


	45. Articuno

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 45-Articuno**

Darkfang watched from a clump of bushes as Justin stormed back into the human's camp, looking furious. The scyther didn't know or care what was making the human angry-he was too busy focusing on more important matters. The female (he guessed; he wasn't quite sure how to tell) human had left a little while ago, but he had stayed put, watching the other one, not sure which of them had captured Stormblade but knowing that this was where they had made their temporary home. When the two humans had left together, he had waited for them to come back, not wanting to risk being seen. Only one had returned so far, but now that one was back, he waited to see if it would let Stormblade out of a pokéball.

The human in the camp seemed distressed-he was pacing back and forth, looking somewhat terrified as well as angry. Darkfang jumped a bit as the human suddenly kicked over a pile of trainer stuff at the edge of the clearing.

The human stood staring at the items in silence for a moment before he heard the sound of pawsteps and turned to see a persian running toward him. Darkfang held still in the shelter of the bushes as the cat pokémon walked up to the human…and then suddenly turned its head right toward him.

Darkfang locked eyes with the other pokémon for a split second before he swiftly backed away, careful not to rustle the leaves too much. The persian was still staring in his direction, its fur standing on end. Then without warning, it leaped forward with a yowl.

Darkfang barely heard the human gasp in surprise before the persian landed in the middle of the bushes-missing Darkfang only due to the scyther's speed. She darted around frantically as the bug type quickly exited the bush, to be met by a terrified scream from the human.

"PERSIAN, THUNDER!"

The cat paused, as if taking a moment to realize that the human had given it an order, then fired a powerful blast of electricity at the retreating scyther. Darkfang cried out and stumbled to the ground, jerking and shaking as the electric attack surged through him and then slowly stopped. He tried getting to his feet, but his limbs did not want to move. They felt unnaturally stiff-in fact, his whole body did. He found it hard to get any of his muscles to work at all.

The human in the clearing was screaming, and the confused persian was following his orders as well as she could. Darkfang heard the pokémon running toward him, and realizing that he was paralyzed, could only mentally brace himself for the attack.

"Power gem!" the trainer shouted.

The persian paused, her eyes narrowed in concentration as the gem on her head started to glow with a bright light-it hurt Darkfang's eyes to look at it, yet he couldn't turn his head and look away.

A large, bright beam suddenly made its way toward him, and at such a close range Darkfang only glimpsed it for a split second before it slammed into his body, sending him flying backward until his momentum was stopped when he slammed into a tree. That jolted him out of the paralysis for a moment, however, and he quickly got up and limped off, but he could hear the trainer's indistinct shouts and the sound of the persian running closer to him. He felt the cat pokémon deliver a night slash to his back and felt it tear one of his wings, but before the pokémon could do any more damage he sprinted ahead of it, not pausing to look back although he could soon tell that it was no longer following him.

Once in the shelter of the forest's outskirts, he paused to catch his breath and rest. He now understood that not all humans were the nice, caring ones he had known back at Stonedust City. The wounds from the battle might take a while to heal if he wasn't careful, and he knew that he wouldn't be hunting for a while. As soon as he felt strong enough, he stood up and limped back to the swarm. He didn't want to cross those humans again, but one thought stuck in his mind._If that's how the human treated him, how would it treat Stormblade?_

_

* * *

_"Nothing…nothing at all…" the man muttered, kicking the dirt at his feet disdainfully. "I would have sworn there'd be something out here worth catching, or at least battling," he added, sneering at his surroundings-a field of sparse grass with no trees or pokémon in sight. "Still, we're not giving up on the chance that there'll be strong or at least rare pokémon around here, seeing as not many venture this far, eh, Volco?" He cast a backward glance at his typhlosion, a powerful looking pokémon with a jagged scar across his face and a missing eye.

The pokémon said nothing but merely scraped his claws across the dry ground, seeming just as displeased with the area as his trainer. He knew as well as the human did that were it not for the police discovering the abandoned town and Master's training facility, they wouldn't be wandering about in the wilderness with half of Master's pokémon left to be kept safe by another trainer in the first place. They had little food apart from what Volco could kill or Master could shoot, and pokémon weren't easy to find out in this wilderness. Already they had had to resort to killing and eating some of the weaker pokémon Master had brought along.

Volco looked up as his master gave another angry cry and started walking forward. The typhlosion followed him obediently. As the two carried on, Volco's thoughts drifted back to the last encounter with Thunder-for a while, Master had tried to search for and recapture her, as she was one of his strongest pokémon, though he had eventually given up. Volco had been, and still was, incredibly disappointed; he longed to get revenge on the scyther that had torn out his eye, though he knew by now that that was no longer a possibility. Thunder was far from where either of them would be able to find her, if she hadn't starved to death already.

Volco paused as his master stopped, still looking angry and tired. "Go on ahead," he told his pokémon, "see if you can find a spot to rest. Maybe some fresh water too."

Volco nodded slowly, knowing that the human would understand the message, and turned and ran off. After a short while, he noticed that the ground didn't seem as flat and dry as before. He stared ahead as he loped over a small hill, suddenly realizing that the horizon seemed…odd, somehow. He wasn't able to see very far or very clearly, but it did look unusual to him. Curious, he ran faster, and as he got further, he realized what it was he had been looking at.

Ahead of him was a cliff. A cliff, he realized as he got closer to it, that dropped into a canyon and extended far in either direction. What was more important to him though, was the steady flow of water at the bottom of the canyon and the lush vegetation within it. The steep cliffs made Volco nervous, and he wasn't about to go down there and check it out. Turning around, he headed back to his master. Steep cliffs or not, this was certainly better that what he'd been hoping to find.

* * *

Snowcrystal never thought she would miss the feeling of snow between her paws so much until she was standing in a small patch of it quite a ways, it seemed, from the base of the mountain. The feeling of the cold substance on her paws brought back memories of her old home far more vividly than they had been in a while.

"Hey, Snowcrystal, what's the hold up?" Spark shouted from up ahead.

"Huh? Oh, uh, nothing!" she called back to the jolteon, flicking snow off her paws as she rejoined the group, most of which had passed her while she had been standing alone in the snow.

Nearby, Rosie craned her neck to look up toward the mountain's peak, the wind tugging at her long fur. "Let's hope the Articuno we meet isn't some insane psycho," she muttered, though Snowcrystal couldn't tell if she really was worried or just being sarcastic.

"Look at it this way," Alex told her. "If he is, at least it'll be interesting to see!"

"This isn't some sort of game!" Blazefang growled at her. "If you find the prospect of getting torn apart exciting, why don't you go use aqua jet on Thunder?"

Snowcrystal didn't hear Alex's reply-she had turned around and glanced at Thunder. The scyther was still trailing at the back of the group, using her scythes to support her. Snowcrystal heard the sound of the blade tips scraping against rock as Thunder hauled herself over a steep slope…and then collapsed at the top of it.

"Oh dear…" Spark sighed, sounding more worried about anyone about to try to help the scyther than about Thunder herself.

"I knew that was going to happen!" Alex cried, a little too loudly.

"Think we should just leave her there?" Snowcrystal heard Blazefang ask.

Redclaw ignored him, walking carefully over the rocks toward Thunder. The arcanine leaned his head down, and Snowcrystal expected him to get his nose slashed, but Thunder didn't move. Nightshade and Wildflame walked closer to the two, and after a moment of hesitating, Snowcrystal followed them.

"She passed out," Redclaw sighed as they approached.

"Alex was right," Wildflame muttered. "It was bound to happen. What are we supposed to do now? She's not strong enough to make this journey!"

"Maybe she should stay here…" Nightshade began. "It'll only get colder and harder to climb the further we go."

Most of the other pokémon in the group were gathering around Thunder, looking nervous, as if worried they would be forced to slow down. "Maybe Redclaw can carry her!" Alex suggested, not seeming to notice that the looks the others gave her made it clear that that was a bad idea.

"Nightshade's right," Redclaw told the others. "She won't get much farther." He nudged Thunder gently away from the rocky slope, onto smoother ground. "Someone will need to stay behind and watch over her."

"How about Nightshade?" Rosie suggested. "He's practically the only one she doesn't want to kill…"

"Or Redclaw," Wildflame added. "He's a fire type…he could keep her warm."

Snowcrystal suddenly pictured Thunder lying against Redclaw with the arcanine's tail wrapped around her, and had to resist the urge to laugh, despite the situation.

"I'll stay," Nightshade sighed. He took a glance up at the mountain's peak, as if he was disappointed that he wouldn't get to travel the whole way, but the look quickly vanished as he turned to the others again. "I'll wait for you at this spot."

"Rosie…" Wildflame began, pausing once the ninetales turned to look at her. "I think you ought to stay behind too. I mean, your leg's not fully healed."

"My leg's fine," Rosie replied with a scowl.

"You still limp whenever you walk, and if there's any danger, you won't be able to get away as fast."

Rosie's crimson eyes narrowed as she glared at the houndoom, but she didn't say anything. Snowcrystal suspected that deep down, Rosie knew she was right-and climbing the mountain now would take a huge toll on her.

"Look, we'll tell you all about what's happened right when we get back," Snowcrystal told her. "In the meantime, you can rest."

Rosie looked upward at the distance they still had to climb, and sighed in defeat. "All right," she muttered. "But you better be back quick."

"Thanks, Rosie," Snowcrystal told her, relieved that the ninetales hadn't tried to argue much. Snowcrystal didn't blame her-she looked exhausted, and her stubbornness had probably only come from not wanting to seem weak. "We'll be back soon," she told her and Nightshade.

"Well, hurry up," Rosie replied, still not sounding happy. "You're wasting daylight."

Snowcrystal gave her friend one last smile and turned around with the others, heading up a rocky slope.

"We'll bring you back an articuno feather!" Alex shouted over her shoulder as she bounded after Snowcrystal on all fours.

As Snowcrystal climbed up the slope, she glanced back to see Nightshade watching them from down below. She paused for a moment before turning and climbing up onto another wide ledge, hoping that the three pokémon left behind would be all right.

As the group traveled further up the mountain, small flakes of snow drifted down on them. There were patches of snow all around them now, and every so often Redclaw or Wildflame would have to reprimand Alex or Spark for leaping in the piles and scattering snow over everyone else. Snowcrystal also noticed that the sky seemed unusually darker the further they went, and she figured it must be the thick clouds that had begun to gather over the mountain's peak.

"So this is it," she heard Wildflame whisper from beside her. The houndoom was shivering, but it seemed to be more a result of anticipation than of cold. Why was Wildflame so excited? Did she still want Articuno to help her clan, even if they were against houndoom?

Blazefang seemed just the opposite of excited. It seemed as if every step they took closer to the mountain's peak, Blazefang became more and more nervous. Spark and Redclaw, however, seemed uncertain and curious, yet calm, as they followed Snowcrystal up the mountain slopes.

In one place quite a ways ahead, the going became much rockier. Snowcrystal found it easy to leap from boulder to boulder up a steep slope, but the others were finding it much more difficult. Blazefang whimpered slightly as he tried to haul himself up using his front legs. Redclaw had to carefully decide where to place his paws in case he slipped off. Alex, on the other hand, _did_fall off-she had attempted to copy Snowcrystal's jumps and slipped on an icy rock, tumbling into a snowdrift below. Spark had burst out laughing, so much that he nearly fell off himself. It took a while for everyone to reach the top, but Snowcrystal was relieved that when they did, the going looked like it would be much easier. There was a lot more snow up in this place, but the ground sloped gently, and there were no sharp rocky paths or slick ice.

"Look at all the snow!" Spark shouted, running through it and leaving deep pawprints. "Reminds me of being back in Justin's town during the winter!"

Snowcrystal was relieved to hear that he didn't sound sad about the memory, and it was nice to see someone having fun now that she thought about it, especially when her mind was filled with conflicting emotions about how near to them Articuno was. She could see larger snowflakes falling more frequently around her now, and paused to look up once again at the dark gray sky before turning back toward Spark.

All of a sudden her fur began to bristle as she was struck with some strange, yet strong impression that there was something bad nearby. The snow made it difficult to pinpoint any exact scents, and she couldn't see anything…

"Spark, look out!" Redclaw cried as the jolteon wandered toward a clump of pine trees that stood near an almost vertical slope of gray rock.

Just as Snowcrystal was about to ask the arcanine what had made him shout, a massive pokémon stepped out from behind the tall trees. Even from a distance, it looked taller than even Redclaw. The beast was covered in long, white hair, with green coloring on its massive arms and stubby-looking legs. Its small eyes glared menacingly at first the jolteon, then the rest of the group-the eyes were the only feature visible on its otherwise expressionless face.

For a moment, no one moved. Even Spark and the strange pokémon had frozen in surprise. It was in this moment that Snowcrystal recognized what it was. She hadn't at first because this was the first time she had ever set eyes on one, but although it didn't live on her mountain, she had heard about it. It was an abomasnow.

As Snowcrystal stared on in surprise, the tall pokémon lifted one of its massive arms, getting ready to swipe at the much smaller jolteon. "Spark!" she cried, but the electric type had already jumped out of the way as the ice pokemon's arm swung toward him. Knowing that he was no match for a much stronger creature in its own habitat, Spark turned and ran.

Yet the deep snow was slowing him down. After a few leaps, he tumbled, rolling over in the powdery snow before struggling to his feet again. The abomasnow, although much slower than Spark, moved with ease through the snow, catching up quickly as Spark struggled to move faster.

Without thinking, Snowcrystal bolted forward, going over the flame wheel tactic she had practiced again and again in her mind. Redclaw and Wildflame had rushed to the rescue as well, but it was Alex who moved quicker than all the others. Racing ahead of the three canines, her paws seeming to glide over the snow, she bared her fangs and headed straight for the ice type who was gaining on Spark.

"Wait!" Snowcrystal tried to yell, but either the wind had gotten stronger and drowned out her voice, or Alex wasn't listening. "You have a type disadvantage!" the growlithe screamed. "Wait!"

Ignoring the growlithe's shouts, Alex ran on, bounding through the snow at a speed the others had not thought possible. White powder flew from her paws as the distance between her and her quarry shortened with every bound. She reached Spark just as the enemy pokémon was almost upon him, and flung herself at it with all her might.

Disregarding all normal attacks, the floatzel clawed and bit frantically at the creature as she latched her forepaws onto its shoulder; the abomasnow stumbled backward, swiping at her frantically.

Spark, who had fallen again, struggled to pull himself out of a deep snow pit, sliding along the ice on his belly until he managed to scramble out onto more solid ground.

Snowcrystal arrived on the scene quicker than Redclaw and Wildflame, who were not used to running through snow, to see Alex still clinging onto the abomasnow's side, her teeth digging firmly into its arm. Snowcrystal wanted to fire an attack, but the two were moving so quickly that she was afraid of hitting Alex; water type or not, she did not need any distraction from an injury right now.

The abomasnow roared in frustration as it stumbled backward into another pit of deep snow, then with another roar-a cry of anger this time, he grabbed one of Alex's tails in his free arm and wrenched her away. Alex's eyes widened in pain a moment before she was forced to release her hold. She then found herself hanging upside down, the abomasnow glaring at her as he held her by the tail.

The floatzel yelped as she was sent sailing through the air, the abomasnow's roar of anger ringing in her ears as she hit the ground hard. Dazed, she tried pushing herself to her feet, but a barrage of knifelike leaves, sent flying toward her by the ice pokémon, knocked her down, opening long cuts in her body.

The still enraged abomasnow left the fallen floatzel where she was, rounding instead on Snowcrystal, who was still focusing on readying a flame wheel attack. The growlithe faltered in surprise, the flames flickering out as she lost her concentration. With another roar, the huge creature lumbered towards her. She didn't have time to run. If she could just conjure up a powerful enough fire attack…

But she didn't have to. Just as the pokémon was almost upon her, another roar resounded through the mountain area-Redclaw's. A stream of bright orange flame seared above Snowcrystal's head and headed straight for the abomasnow.

The creature howled in fury and pain, stumbling backward and away from Snowcrystal, some of its fur set alight. Wildflame appeared next to Snowcrystal, her paws kicking up snow into the air. Spark arrived next to her-every clump of hair on his body sharpened into needle-like spines. The abomasnow was still flailing in anger, trying to put out the flames.

"Do you think it's-" Snowcrystal began.

"Look out!" Wildflame cried, and only just soon enough. Snowcrystal barely managed to close her eyes and duck as a wall of snow, ice, and wind came hurtling towards them. She braced herself by digging her claws into the ground beneath-but it wasn't enough. The powdery snow broke loose easily and Snowcrystal found herself being flipped backwards, landing in a heap where she was forced to endure the howling wind and jagged shards of ice.

Then suddenly, it stopped. The other three pokémon were still standing, although Spark looked unsteady on his feet. The abomasnow stood facing them, all the flames extinguished-though Snowcrystal now realized with worry that it seemed as if for the most part, only the pokémon's fur was burnt-the injury itself didn't seem bad enough to truly hinder the ice type.

Redclaw was the first to leap forward, red flames forming inside his muzzle which he then launched at the pokémon. Yet before the flames reached it, another massive barrage of ice and snow made its way toward them, stopping the flamethrower attack. Snowcrystal's eyes widened-this snow attack looked far worse than the first!

Before she could act on her own accord, teeth met in her scruff and she felt Wildflame frantically dragging her away, and to her surprise, they managed to avoid the blast of snow, which seemed for the most part to be concentrated on one specific area. As it thundered past, she noticed that Spark had managed to avoid it too, but Redclaw…

Redclaw was lying unconscious in the snow, ice frosted thickly over his fur.

"Redclaw!" Snowcrystal cried, both fear for her friend and fear for herself welling up inside her-Redclaw was the strongest fire type in the group. That left only her, Wildflame, Spark, and…

Where was Blazefang?

Without stopping to think about it, Snowcrystal looked frantically at Wildflame while the abomasnow paused, as if stopping to regain some of its strength. "What was that?" she cried, not knowing what sort of ice attack could stop a powerful fire type in his tracks. Wildflame, however, was more focused on trying to hit the ice type with another fire attack.

"Sheer cold!" Spark replied from where he stood, his eyes still focused on the enemy. "Watch out! It's coming again!"

This time, Snowcrystal was ready. As the ice and snow hurtled towards her, she quickly moved out of the line of fire, and once the air cleared again, she was relieved to see that Wildflame and Spark had avoided it again as well.

Wildflame leaped forward, shooting a stream of flame from her mouth, but once again a mass of whirling snow and ice, more like the first attack than the second, weakened it before it reached its target. This time, even Wildflame was knocked backward by the fierce wind, crying out in pain as she tumbled into a patch of snow.

Wildflame looked frantically at Spark, who seemed just about out of energy, and back at the abomasnow, who didn't seem tired at all. Snowcrystal had expected the pokémon to be strong, but not _this_ strong. The thought that it might have trained itself to develop strategies against fire types briefly crossed her mind, and with a jolt of horror she saw it readying another attack, far quicker than she knew she could finish summoning a flame wheel…

Suddenly a loud screech overhead sounded around them-its echo making it seem far louder than a sound any pokémon could make. Out of the corner of her eye, Snowcrystal spotted a birdlike shape in the sky. _Was that Articuno?_

"Hey, leave them alone!" a voice shouted, but it was a voice Snowcrystal recognized-Alex's voice.

The floatzel was bounding toward the abomasnow, water beginning to form around her body from the air around her-already it was crackling with ice from the intense cold brought about from the recent ice type attacks, but the water was moving too quickly around the floatzel to freeze. With a yell, Alex launched herself forward, more water spinning around her as she collided with the abomasnow just as it launched another attack.

This time, the blizzard wasn't as strong as the ones before it. Snowcrystal endured it rather easily before it faded, quicker than the other two. When it did, the sight that greeted her eyes greatly surprised her. Both pokémon-Alex and the abomasnow-were partially frozen to the ground from the water meeting the blizzard attack. Alex was standing on all fours-with each of her paws immobile, but that did not stop her from firing a water gun attack disdainfully in her enemy's face.

"Now!" Wildflame shouted to Snowcrystal, before quickly launching a flamethrower at the surprised abomasnow before it had a chance to retaliate.

Snowcrystal focused all her energy and concentration on a flame wheel, realizing with immense surprise that it formed far quickly than she had expected. She launched the whirling tornado of flame at the struggling pokémon, and Alex ducked her head as the flames struck the abomasnow-right on target.

Snowcrystal began summoning the strength for another flame wheel, knowing that the attack would have melted the ice, but a sudden shriek from Wildflame made her glance in the houndoom's direction, and what she saw made her blood run cold.

A massive pidgeot, far larger than any she'd ever seen flying over her mountain, had sunk its claws into Wildflame's back and bowled the houndoom over. _It wasn't Articuno she had seen…it was another enemy!_

Near the abomasnow, Alex grunted as she wrenched her paws free of the weakening ice. The huge white pokémon was injured and tiring now, and the floatzel knew it. Opening her mouth, she fired several star-shaped beams of energy at the weakened pokémon, causing it to give a yell of rage.

Snowcrystal's attention, however, was on the massive bird pokémon. Spark was darting around it, firing sharpened spines at it whenever possible, but he couldn't use an electric attack-the pidgeot's massive talons were still gripping Wildflame.

With a strength she hadn't known she had, Snowcrystal summoned up another flame wheel even quicker than she had before, and sent the searing flames spiraling straight at the massive flying type.

The pidgeot squawked loudly, releasing Wildflame and taking to the air. Spark struck it with a thunderbolt, but to everyone's surprise, the flying type stayed airborne.

Snowcrystal heard another cry of pain and then saw Alex running toward them. "Abomasnow's down!" she panted, though she seemed exhausted, and had several long cuts across her face-probably from another razor leaf attack.

As Spark focused on attacking the huge pidgeot, another shriek rent the air, and a second pidgeot, almost as large as the first, dove down toward the jolteon, ignoring the bolt of lightning that shot upwards toward it from the panicked eevee evolution. It was Spark's lightning speed that saved him. Luckily, he was standing on a flat rock with only a thin covering of snow, and bounding off of it, he avoided the pidgeot's raking talons as it swooped past.

Snowcrystal was about to try and aim an attack at the swiftly flying pokémon, when a screech for help met her ears. Whirling around, she saw Blazefang in the distance, struggling in a patch of snow next to a dangerously steep cliff, a fearow bearing down on him. She saw it stab downward with its beak, catching Blazefang in the hind leg and making him howl with pain. From what she could see, some of the snow around him was red…

Then what happened next made Snowcrystal feel like everything had suddenly gone horribly wrong, much more wrong than anything that had happened to them so far. Bright, blue-white flames, flames she had wished never to see ever again in her entire life, erupted from Blazefang's gaping mouth. The houndour's eyes widened-glowing a searing bright yellow, as the twisted fire warped itself around the fearow, enveloping it completely and causing it to tumble backward over the cliff with an earsplitting screech. Blazefang stood up slowly, not noticing the blood flowing from his leg wound, and turned to look at the group who were still fighting.

His eyes were still a bright, pure, unnatural yellow. Walking mechanically, as if not on his own, Blazefang made his way toward them, leaving bloody pawprints in the snow. His eyes blazed, his mouth stretched in a grin…

But before he reached them, a dark shape raced across the snow, its long legs sending more powder sailing into the air, and cannoned into Blazefang, knocking the houndour clear off his feet and into the icy snow. It was Wildflame.

The houndoom stood over Blazefang, her sides heaving. Snowcrystal heard Alex and Spark approaching her, having managed to fend off both pidgeot. Snowcrystal felt a pang of shame-in her panic at seeing Shadowflare, she had not rejoined the battle. Not like she could have done much, she tried to convince herself. The only good long-ranged attack she had was flame wheel, and she could never have hit something as fast as a pidgeot. Only half-satisfied with her self-thought excuse, she walked over to where Wildflame was standing over the motionless Blazefang. The others followed solemnly.

Blazefang's eyes were opened, but they were back to their normal red-the houndour was looking at Wildflame with an expression of helplessness. "I'm sorry…" Snowcrystal heard him whisper as she approached. "I tried to fight it…I really did…"

Snowcrystal glanced around at the others-everyone had cuts from shards of ice or leaves, and all of them looked exhausted as they looked down at Blazefang. Silence fell upon the group, and Alex was the first to speak.

"What about Redclaw?" she asked.

Snowcrystal turned around and darted toward the arcanine, who was beginning to stir. "Redclaw?" she whispered, stopping by his side and nudging his icy fur.

The arcanine's eyes opened. "Snowcrystal…" he whispered weakly. "Is everyone all right?"

"I…I'm not sure," she replied uncertainly. "No one's seriously hurt…I don't think. Can you get up?"

Redclaw didn't reply, but he slowly lifted himself to his paws. He was weak, but he didn't fall down. "I'll be fine with a little rest," he rasped. "It only knocked me out. It was an ice attack after all, and I'm a fire type."

Snowcrystal heard footsteps as the rest of the group bounded through the snow toward them, even Blazefang, who was still looking horrified at what he'd done.

"Well, we'd better get going," Wildflame told everyone. "Those birds might come back…with friends."

"Wildflame's right," Redclaw agreed, staggering forward. "Let's move on."

"But are you sure you've got enough strength?" Snowcrystal asked worriedly.

"I'm strong enough," came Redclaw's reply.

Without much of a choice, they began heading further up the mountain, fear giving them both strength and speed. Even when the snow became thicker higher up, they did not stop-fear that a pokémon would drop down on them from the sky and attack spurred them onward.

After a while of trudging through snow, the group finally decided to take a break. There were no signs of any enemies, and they all felt very worn out.

"How much further?" Spark muttered, flopping down in the snow.

Snowcrystal lifted her head, narrowing her eyes against the biting wind. The wind had grown stronger ever since the abomasnow's blizzard and sheer cold attacks…it would be harder to climb the rest of the way, even if it wasn't quite so far. A sudden, horrible thought struck her. If the blizzard attacks could make more wind and snow and ice, did that mean...that _they_ could be causing the mountain to be this way, not Articuno? No! That couldn't be true. Darkfang had seen Articuno, and Alex had told them…

"It's not that far," Wildflame told the others from where she was still standing. "We can keep going. If we stay here, we risk being in danger." The wind whipped at the houndoom's thin flanks and dried blood shone out on her wounds, but her eyes shone. She was more determined to get to Articuno than ever now.

"Wildflame's right," Redclaw agreed, heaving himself to his feet. The arcanine swayed for a moment but managed to stay standing. "I can keep going. What about the rest of you?"

"Redclaw," Spark began, "I don't think you should-"

"I may not be Thunder," Redclaw replied. "But Master did teach me something I could make use of, and that was endurance. The real question is…are the rest of you ready?"

"So soon?" Alex asked, looking at him with a mixture of surprise and bewilderment.

"I'm ready," Spark replied as he gave a weary sigh and stood up. "I sure don't want to be caught in the open."

"Me neither," Snowcrystal agreed. "Let's go…"

They headed off, more slowly this time, keeping their eyes fixed on the rocks and trees around them, as well as the sky, in case an enemy could be lurking near. As they got ever so closer to the top, Snowcrystal could see that the sky was darkening even more, the clouds above them seeming more ominous.

They soon came to a place where the rocks sloped upward so steeply that even Snowcrystal knew that she would not be able to climb it. Finding a dead end at one side and forced to go around the other way instead, they were soon met with a horribly steep cliff that seemed to slide down into pure gray nothingness. The group of six pokémon huddled together, the wind pushing at their backs as if it wanted to fling them over into the abyss.

"What now?" Alex cried over the wind. She was clutching Snowcrystal's fur.

Snowcrystal wasn't worried about heights-she was used to this in her mountain home. But something about the wind made her nervous. It seemed almost…hostile. Nevertheless, she glanced around, wondering if there was any way…

Yes! There was. A narrow ridge leading up the mountain. Despite there being only a few feet between the rock wall and the edge of the cliff, Snowcrystal felt as if the ridge would be perfectly safe.

For a mountain growlithe…but for the others?

"That way!" she called, pointing her nose toward the winding ledge.

"Are you crazy?" Alex replied.

"No," Snowcrystal replied. "I know it looks dangerous, but if we move carefully, it won't be. The rocks should block most of the wind…" _Until we round that corner…_ she thought, looking ahead to where the path swerved out of view around the rock wall, _then the wind could be heading straight for us…_

Wherever it led, they couldn't go back now. How long could they waste looking for another route with those enemy pokémon lurking about? Taking a deep breath, she walked over to where the ledge began and placed a paw on it hesitantly, then walked onto it. It felt as sturdy as it looked, and the wind didn't seem near as strong there. "Follow me!" she cried, walking forward with confidence, hoping that would help the others overcome their fear.

Spark went next, and the agile jolteon seemed almost as comfortable as Snowcrystal after the first few hesitant steps. "She's right!" he called back. "The wind's mostly blocked here!"

Alex went next, a lot slower than Spark, followed by Wildflame and Blazefang and lastly, Redclaw. The arcanine was having the most difficulty, being the largest, but he followed the others determinedly, his gaze focused only on the way ahead.

Snowcrystal plodded forward carefully, her fur prickling as she neared the place where the path veered around the corner. Taking another deep breath, she approached it carefully and stepped around the corner.

A blast of wind met her, forcing her to close her eyes and dig her claws into the icy ground in fear of being blown backward over the edge of the cliff. When she managed to open them, she was horrified at what she saw.

The path ahead sloped gently upward for a little while, and then suddenly turned steep. The steep part of the slope was made up of jagged rocks leading upward with a sheer drop on one side. Snowcrystal even doubted her own climbing abilities would allow her to scale that. With sinking regret, she realized that they needed to turn back.

Turning around ever so carefully, she rounded the corner and faced the others.

"What's wrong?" Spark asked, looking puzzled.

"It gets really steep and narrow over there!" she explained, having to shout over the noise of the wind. "We have to go back and find another way!"

"Are you sure?" Redclaw cried worriedly from behind everyone. "I don't think I can turn around!"

Realizing the bad situation they were in, Snowcrystal frantically tried to think of a solution. Yet before she could, things became much worse.

A sudden shriek sliced through the air, and another gigantic pidgeot-or the same one, she couldn't tell-wheeled into the air above them, circling once before diving straight at Redclaw.

Spark whirled around, firing a blast of electricity at the pokémon; it cried out and swerved away at the last instant, squawking harshly, but Snowcrystal couldn't make out the words.

Everyone stood poised and ready, their eyes locked onto the large winged shape. Or…_shapes_. Snowcrystal watched in terror as more and more bird pokémon appeared, some far off and heading toward them, others very, very close. Snowcrystal watched Spark's eyes dart from one to another-there was no way he could bring them all down with electric attacks at once. There was only one thing for it.

"Run!" she shouted, darting back around the swerve in the path, kicking up loose snow and almost slipping. It occurred to her that her friends would not be able to move nearly as fast, but she didn't stop-she couldn't slow down, for that would slow them down too. She headed for the steep rock slope, feeling a whoosh of air as a pair of talons narrowly missed her-a bird had dived down at her from the top of the rock wall above her.

Panting, she reached the base of the rocks and leaped onto the first one-pain stabbed through her paw as she cut herself on its sharp edge-and without stopping, she jumped to the next, and the next, and the next…

With a cry that was more terror than pain, Snowcrystal felt talons meet in her scruff and her paws were torn away from the rocks as she was lifted clear in into the air. Flailing helplessly, she watched the rock ledge get smaller as she was lifted up, then watched as the ground down below moved out of her line of vision-to be replaced with a sickeningly long drop down to a ground she couldn't even see through the whirling snow. It was going to drop her.

_No! No!_ she cried frantically in her mind, twisting in the bird's grip out of sheer panic, all rational thought lost on her.

Then, suddenly, a wave of heat washed over the growlithe, and the pokémon holding her gave a cry of pain before veering off to the side sharply and releasing its grip. Snowcrystal plummeted, but only for a few terrifying seconds. She landed roughly in deep snow, and it took her a moment to force herself to look up and realize that she had landed on top of the rock wall-above the ridge where the others were climbing. The slope was much gentler on this part of the mountain, and the mountain's peak looked closer than ever before. _They were so close…_

The burned pidgeot had managed to right itself in the air, but now was focusing on a new target-Wildflame. Spark had reached the part of the ledge that led steeply upward, and with the agility his species were blessed with, hopped from rock to rock with lightning speed. Snowcrystal noticed with both relief and admiration that he did not stumble or slip once, although she expected him to at every jump.

Running up beside Snowcrystal, the jolteon stood at the edge of the rock wall, his eyes blazing as he watched Wildflame, Blazefang, Alex and Redclaw struggling to reach the steep rocks. With a cry of fury he threw back his head, and all at once several bolts of lightning erupted from his body. Forks of jagged electricity reached across the sky and lit it up with a brilliant white-yellow glow. Several of the bird pokémon shrieked and fell, only to right themselves after they were released from the attack. But Spark was still standing, sending even more beams of lightning at the attackers. At this moment, none of them could get near him, or the others.

Alex had reached the steep rocks. Followed by Wildflame and then Blazefang, the floatzel began making the climb, the wind tearing at her as she went. Redclaw waited below them, his massive frame quivering with fear. Near the middle, Wildflame slipped, but luckily against the solid wall next to her, and managed to climb back to her feet shakily. Alex paused and waited for the houndoom to catch up to her, then leaned against her as the two made their way to the top, Alex having better paws for gripping than Wildflame. Blazefang followed shakily behind, but being smaller, he found it easier to keep away from the cliff edge. Sheer desperation was overcoming fear, and the houndour was forcing himself to use all his strength climb up each jagged boulder.

Then, suddenly, Spark's electric attack stopped. The jolteon wavered on the spot, as if he was about to faint. Small sparks flew from his body, but that seemed to be the only electricity he had left. The bird pokémon moved in toward them once again.

One of them raked Alex across the back, causing the floatzel to loose her grip just as she was about to reach the top of the slope. She rolled over the side of the ledge, her paws gripped the edge as she fell, stopping her but leaving her hanging helplessly. Wildflame, who had staggered to the top, looked down at Alex with a look of terror as Blazefang managed to struggle up to the top alongside her.

Snowcrystal began running over to the water type, when a roar from Redclaw made her pause. The arcanine was trying to fend off two pidgeot who were attacking him from both sides. He fired a flamethrower at one that looked terrifyingly as if it had been about to use whirlwind, and it flew away, crying harshly in rage.

Redclaw swiped at the other with his paw, then made a dash for the rocks. He fired another blast of flame at a bird pokémon who had been trying to attack Alex, allowing the floatzel to scramble up onto the ledge and limp to safety. The arcanine reached the bottom of the steep slope and leaped, his paws outstretched in a mighty bound with far more grace than one would have thought a creature of his size would be capable of achieving. His mane streamed out in the wind and his eyes locked on the ground beneath him before his leap was brought to a jarring halt as he landed roughly on the narrow ledge of rocks. Hardly pausing, he leaped up again, a much shorter distance this time, and his paws had scarcely touched the ground beneath them before he bounded upward once more, heedless of the bird pokémon who circled around him, one of them launching a whirlwind that missed him as his paws propelled him upward and to the top of the ledge. The arcanine leaped up onto the more solid ground, lifting his head in a roar that echoed around them, sounding as loud as if several arcanine had been roaring at once. Then he whirled around to face the pokémon that had been following him, firing a stream of flame at them before turning and launching a similar attack at another group. Several more blasts of fire from the arcanine lit up the sky-several of the nearer enemy pokémon squawked in fear. Then Redclaw ran over to the rest of the group, standing in front of them before lifting his head and blowing out a stream of flames that encircled them all.

Snowcrystal watched as the brilliantly burning flames circled them at startling speed, melting the snow around them. Redclaw was keeping the flames flowing from his open mouth, creating a towering whirlwind of fire that began to reach high above them. Snowcrystal huddled in front of Spark to shield him from stray flames that were being blown toward him from the wind, and looked up at the round circle of dark gray sky above, watching a few of the birds veer away from the flames.

Then suddenly, the whirling fire stopped, flickering out, as it had nothing to burn. Redclaw stood, gasping for breath, his eyes locked on the enemy bird pokémon. There seemed to be even more of them now, and in their exhausted state, no one had much strength to fight.

"Hurry!" Redclaw called, racing out onto the snow, "toward the peak!"

He darted out over the snow, his mane and tail streaming. Forgetting all tiredness, the other five pokémon darted after him, following in the arcanine's path so as to meet less resistance from deep snow. All around them, the angry bird pokémon were moving closer, seeming to realize that the fight had left the travelers.

Snowcrystal was now in the lead along with Redclaw, her paws racing over the snow with ease. She had her eyes fixed on the slope ahead of her when she felt talons rake her across her back, knocking her head over feet in the snow.

A sharp beak sliced downward at her, and she twisted away, feeling it scrape the skin beneath the fur on her neck. Around her, she could hear the cries of others, but as for who was still running and who had been caught…she had no way of knowing. She struggled to free herself, kicking frantically at the bird and wishing her face wasn't pressed down in the snow so she could use a fire attack…even a weak one…

Through a haze of terror and pain, she heard Redclaw howl in distress. Loud cries of flying types told her that they had either brought the arcanine down, or he was surrounded. Cries of friends and foe alike rang in her ears; she struggled madly but the talons held her in place, pressing her deep into the snow as the pokémon's beak stabbed down toward her…

Then she heard another cry, one that sounded distinctly birdlike, but yet different all the same. It was a strange, eerie melody that rang out around the mountaintop, and it sounded hauntingly familiar, even with her ears pressed in the snow. At the moment, the staraptor holding her looked up, freezing in surprise. Snowcrystal lifted her head as much as she could and looked up as well.

The sight that greeted her took her breath away. Soaring through the haze of snow, long tail feathers streaming out behind him, was Articuno. Even bigger and more majestic than any of the other birds, the great ice type flew overhead, and Snowcrystal felt strong, cold wind wash over her. With a startled squawk, the staraptor released her, leaving her alone to watch as the massive, blue feathered bird wheeled down close to her before circling up and around, flying over each of her friends, who had all been released and were still as stone, watching the legendary with awe. Struggling to her feet, Snowcrystal watched as Articuno flew near her again. He looked powerful…strong…so calm and in control…not insane at all!

Then with a suddenness that surprised her, the gigantic bird suddenly plummeted downward, startling the other birds and causing them to take wing and head away from Articuno. Just as the ice type was about to reach the ground, he lifted his wings, gliding over the snow until he reached out with his massive black talons and gripped a jagged spar of rock near Snowcrystal, coming to a halt and folding his wings as he eyed her with his penetrating red gaze.

Snowcrystal stared back, hardly daring to move. After all this time, Articuno, the very same pokémon she had seen so often back at the mountain, was standing right in front of her. She had never seen him this close before. Every gleaming blue feather shone brightly, reflecting some of the dim light as if made of ice themselves. Darker blue feathers made up the crest on his head, and he had a powerful, slightly curved beak, and wings that looked magnificent even when folded at his side. He was the most beautiful pokémon Snowcrystal had ever seen, and she felt tiny and insignificant in his presence. His form was outlined against the snow whirling in the air around him, but the majestic pokémon did not even seem to notice the biting winds. He regarded Snowcrystal with a look of genuine curiosity, and after a moment, the growlithe forced her stiff legs to move and walk closer to the legendary.

Around her, the others had slowly stood up and began to stare in awe at the massive bird. Snowcrystal heard their footsteps as they edged closer, and paused as the bird turned his head to look toward them, then focused his gaze on the growlithe again. Snowcrystal realized that she couldn't hear the other birds anywhere near, and wondered if they were hiding from Articuno. When she was as close to the legendary as she dared to get, she stopped. "Articuno…" she began. The legendary looked at her and then took a pace forward so that he towered over her. She shrank back, and heard the others behind her stop. "Articuno, I need your help."

"So that is why you have come here?" the ice bird replied, his voice loud and clear even over the sound of the wind. It carried a hint of the same graceful melody she had heard when he arrived-it sounded unlike the voice of any other bird pokémon. "What about them?" He inclined his head sharply toward the other five travelers, who were now moving closer together, Redclaw standing in front of the others protectively.

"They're helping me," Snowcrystal replied quickly. "We-"

"I called off the flying types to stop them from attacking a white growlithe," Articuno replied. "But those others are a threat. Especially that jolteon."

Snowcrystal chanced a glance at her friends, and saw Spark casting an astonished look at the others. She figured that being an electric type meant he was more dangerous to those birds…who for some reason seemed to be guarding Articuno, and realized that she needed to try and explain quickly. "He's not dangerous," she replied, looking into Articuno's red eyes. "He came to help me…we only fought back against those bird pokémon because we didn't have a choice. I came from the mountain where the growlithe clan lived…I came to find out why you left! The snow is melting and our territory is shrinking. I fear that the houndour clan will drive us out! You must come back!"

For a moment, Articuno simply stared at her, and she thought she heard the winds around her dying down, as if the whole area around them was becoming calmer as Articuno listened to her. "I am sorry," he told her. "I can not come back."

"What?" Snowcrystal gasped. After all this time, even when she thought Articuno might have been insane, she had not expected to get an answer this devastating. Here Articuno was, healthy and capable of defending her home, and yet here he refused. "But…why?"

From a little ways away, Alex tried to creep closer to Articuno, but a glare from the ice bird froze her in her tracks. Snowcrystal was still waiting for an answer, watching the legendary with wide eyes.

Articuno stepped closer to Snowcrystal, his talons crunching through the thick snow. He spoke loudly and clearly, as if he realized the exhausted pokémon watching from a distance would not be any threat with sheer power and numbers on his side. "I am here to watch over something," he told her. "It is of great importance. I am sorry about what has happened to the old mountain. Had I known your land would fall into chaos, I would have tried to talk with the leaders before leaving, whatever the risk."

"What…whatever the risk?" Snowcrystal repeated. "You left without warning! What risk could we possibly have posed to you?"

"It was not you and the houndour who were the risk," Articuno replied. "It was time. When I was called upon, I had to leave at that moment. I flew for many days before arriving here, and I was nearly too late. I would have thought that the two clans would be able to work something out amongst themselves, but if they cannot do that, then I cannot help them any longer."

"But the ice is melting!" Snowcrystal screamed. "What could be so important that…" She paused, thinking about what Articuno had just said. He was here to watch over something, and it had been urgent enough for him to have to leave immediately, and he had obviously been warned by something powerful and important, another legendary perhaps-for him to take action so suddenly. As these thoughts whirled around her mind, one thing seemed to make sense, and even if it was just a guess, she had to at least find out. Fixing Articuno with a determined look, she asked, "does all this have to do with the Forbidden Attacks?"

If Articuno was surprised, he did not show it. Instead, he merely nodded. "I wouldn't have expected isolated pokémon like you to know," he began slowly. "How much do the clans know?"

"Nothing," Snowcrystal replied. "I found out on my way here. A pokémon told us that the ice attack had been used…."

"And a few others as well," Articuno replied, and his gaze drifted slowly to Blazefang, who cringed and ducked behind Wildflame.

"Yes…" Snowcrystal replied. "That's what you're guarding, isn't it? What all these pokémon here are guarding? Another Forbidden Attack? If that's what the problem is then why don't you throw it off a cliff, or bury it somewhere? It can't be that hard to get rid of!"

"It cannot be destroyed," Articuno replied, an edge of anger to his voice this time. "Hiding it means that there is still a chance that it could be found. Pokémon are already seeking the attacks, and being guarded by a legendary is the only way to deter them. There are other pokémon willing to fight for me, but only a legendary strikes enough fear into pokémons' hearts that they avoid trying to obtain the stones."

"Then why can't one legendary guard them all?" Snowcrystal replied. Her emotions were whirling inside her like the snow in the wind around them-she didn't know how to feel or react. She was having a hard enough time accepting all this.

"Because each one needs a certain place where it can be guarded. An area where a pokémon of the type needed to use the attack would have a difficult time reaching," he explained, a calmer tone to his voice, as if he could sense the young growlithe's distress and thought the pokémon he had once looked after deserved to know why he had left her to fend for herself.

Snowcrystal didn't reply at first-she was too busy thinking. Maybe, she realized, the reason all those pokémon had attacked them was because Spark was an electric type? Was it the electric Forbidden Attack that Articuno was guarding? Was that why he had singled Spark out as a threat? "But…but I don't understand…why did you have to go?"

"Because this is a place I can survive in," the legendary began, "that others can't. It was ideal for hiding one of the stones, but only one. The rest are scattered. If one is taken, that means another in the same area could be taken to. That is why many legendaries were called upon."

"But who-"

"I can't tell you," the ice bird replied.

"So you're just going to let my clan be driven out of our home?" Snowcrystal replied. Even though logic was telling her that Articuno was bound by some sort of promise he had made to someone, she wasn't in any emotional state to listen.

"There will be nothing left of your home if the Forbidden Attacks become out of control," he replied, his tone gaining a fierceness that made Snowcrystal shrink back. "With three or more found and some unaccounted for, I must do my part in protecting the remaining ones. We legendaries must do all we can."

"But can't you stop them? Take them away from pokémon? Destroy them?" she shouted.

Articuno remained silent for a few moments. "I believe only the ones who brought them about can do that," he said.

"Then who-"

"I don't know, nor is it my place to know," Articuno replied.

Snowcrystal lowered her head slightly in defeat-she couldn't bring herself to ask any more questions. The main answer was clear; Articuno wasn't coming back with her.

"I will let you and the other pokémon leave in peace," Articuno replied carefully. "But earlier, some of the pokémon on this mountain flew back to me, telling me that one of the pokémon with you used the fire Forbidden Attack."

"Yes," Snowcrystal replied. "That was Blazefang…he…he's trying to control it, but he was under attack and…well, he used it on a fearow." She winced as she said the last word. "I'm sorry..." She did not know whether or not Articuno knew the fearow personally, but she felt terrible for it all the same.

"I know," came Articuno's cold reply. "And when I heard that another fight had broken out and the pokémon were holding their ground and hadn't fallen off the cliff, I came to stop it before the attack could be triggered again. It was only because I saw you that I called them off. I had not expected a growlithe to come here. But now, you must leave. You and the others, especially that houndour, have no place here."

"What about my clan?" Snowcrystal cried.

"They cannot live here either. Nor would it be safe," Articuno responded. "You will have to leave here quickly…as for the houndour…" he paused to look at Blazefang again. "I will let him go, but if he can not keep his attack under control, I nor anyone else can stop him from being captured and imprisoned like the ice type."

"He won't use it again," Snowcrystal replied, hoping she sounded more sure than she felt. "He hates the attack…"

"At least he is one of the more sensible owners," said Articuno, though he still regarded Blazefang as if he was a graveler that could self destruct at any moment. He gave the ragtag group of pokémon one last glance, and spread his magnificent wings, taking to the air. "I will tell the pokémon here not to harm you if you don't fight them first," he told Snowcrystal as he glided gracefully over the snow. "But you must leave quickly."

Snowcrystal was about to reply, but Articuno had suddenly soared much higher into the air, at a distance where it would have been futile to try and cry out to him. As she watched him soaring above the mountain top, several other bird pokémon appeared, flying near him. She could tell that they would soon know not to attack her or her friends, and the others would realize that Articuno wanted to protect them since he had interfered with the fight. They were free to leave, but Snowcrystal found that she could barely get her paws to move.

She felt as if her clan was utterly alone now. They had simply been left to fend for themselves.

Suddenly she felt Redclaw's fur brush against her and turned to look up at the arcanine. "Come on," he said, "let's go."

Snowcrystal looked away, still standing unmoving. "Go where?" she asked. "What is there left for me to do? Go back and tell them I've failed?" Thinking, she realized that she couldn't stand the thought. She hated the feeling of having come all this way…just to realize that she was helpless after all.

"I'm sure your pack can work something out…" Redclaw began.

"We need the snow to live!" Snowcrystal retorted with a flash of anger. "And Articuno just left us to die!"

"Snowcrystal, look!" Spark cried, walking over to her with the other three following him warily. "You can't be of any help to them out here. It's probably best to go back, where there's something you _can_do."

"But there isn't something I can do…" Snowcrystal sighed, feeling her anger fade. "Not if I go back without help. I mean, if there's any way…any way I could help them somehow…help Articuno be able to return…" She paused, thinking back to what the ice legendary had said. Even he did not know much about how the Forbidden Attacks had come about, but he had known that he could not destroy them.

_I believe only the ones who brought them about can do that…_

That's what he had said. A small spark of hope flickered inside her. Maybe, after all, there _was_something shecould do. If she could find out who created the Forbidden Attacks, she could give Articuno and the other legendaries the information they needed. And if there was even a chance that some pokémon out there would know who those beings were, she was far better off searching for them than returning home only to watch helplessly and use up her clan's dwindling food supply as the growlithe were forced out of their home. Keeping her gaze fixed on the haze of ice and snow around her, she didn't even notice Redclaw or Spark's reply. "I'm going to find out…" she said softly.

"What?" Spark replied, obviously confused.

"I'm going to find out who created the Forbidden Attacks," she said, louder, as she turned to face her five companions. "If they can destroy what they created, the legendaries guarding the attacks should know about them. And someone out there has to know who they are. They can't hide from all pokémon."

Redclaw and Spark exchanged glances, while Wildflame looked utterly at a loss for what to do. Redclaw looked the growlithe in the eyes. "Snowcrystal…"

"I know it sounds hopeless," she replied. "But I can't return home…there's hardly any prey as it is. All of you who are still looking for homes can keep looking, and I'll follow you, asking pokémon if they know anything. Someone will, I'm just not sure who or where."

"I…I suppose, but…" Spark began, "if we're all looking for things in different places, then…"

"Well, I'm not," Blazefang declared, stepping forward with a look at Snowcrystal. "You may not be my first choice of company, but if there's a chance I can get rid of Shadowflare, I assume my best bet is to follow you, on the chance you do learn something. I need to find out as well, so the legendaries will be able to do something in order to help me."

Spark glanced at the others, then said, "I suppose I'll help you, Snowcrystal. After all…I've come to realize…I don't really want a trainer if it's not Justin. I'm just as lost as Thunder or Wildflame or Redclaw. I suppose that continuing to look for a new home together would be best."

"And a lot safer," Redclaw added, though he still looked uncertain. "If this is really what you want to do, Snowcrystal, then do it if you feel that it's what is right. And if we don't find anything…" He paused. "Well, we can always be on the lookout for a new home for your clan as well."

To her surprise, Snowcrystal didn't find the remark insulting or disheartening. "All right," she agreed. "I'll do that. As long as I'm trying to help."

Throughout this time, Wildflame had been completely silent. The houndoom did not speak as the group slowly made their way back down the path they had come from. Snowcrystal knew that she was probably still very confused, but she had the chance of a new future now, even if her own clan had rejected her. Soon, she thought, Wildflame would feel hopeful again too.

As they descended the mountain, Snowcrystal felt a new determination rising within her. The quest had not ended. There was still more she had left to discover…more that would help her clan and many other pokémon as well. And now she no longer needed to search for the legendary that had been on her mind almost constantly since the start of her journey.

There was nothing more that Articuno could do.

Now _she_ had to do something.

_To be continued..._


	46. An Unsettling Discovery

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 46-An Unsettling Discovery**

By evening, the group had made their way back down the mountain and onto the plains. Snowcrystal had told the three who had stayed behind what had happened, and now they all rested at the base of the mountain in silence, each with their own thoughts.

Wildflame in particular felt lost. Everything she had hoped for, even the hopes that had seemed impossible, had been dashed when Articuno had refused to go with them. Now she did not know whether to return to her pack empty pawed, or follow Blazefang in the hopes that he would know what to do. But then again, he had his own problems that had nothing to do with her. Should she go back to the mountain? The snow was melting anyway; it wasn't like there was any more risk that Articuno would reverse it to help the growlithe clan, but yet…the hopes of pleasing Firedash and gaining a higher rank in her own clan were gone. Did she really want to go back to her pack life? With so little freedom and so many with ranks above her? The houndoom's thoughts drifted as she glanced over the pokémon gathered around her.

Should she keep going with them? They were looking for new homes, weren't they? Then again, she had lied to them…they couldn't trust her…but at the same time, she realized, tricking them on Blazefang's orders was in the past. She figured that none of that mattered now, and as she glanced around at the others once again, watching them rest and talk, she decided that they didn't need to know.

* * *

"Which way do you think we should go then?" Alex asked. The group had rested for a while and was now headed away from the mountain. "I mean, I know you don't want to run into that Cyclone pokémon, but…"

"You're still coming?" Blazefang muttered as he angled his head to look at her, giving the floatzel a slight sneer. "I thought you already had a home."

"Well, I'd rather come with you," she explained. "I want to help Snowcrystal find out the…the Forbidden Attack thing, or whatever it was…you see-"

"Forbidden Attack thing?" Blazefang repeated, sounding disgusted. "It's obvious you aren't taking this seriously. You're better off in your old home, which was perfectly fine." He turned away from her, walking ahead.

Snowcrystal watched him sadly and turned to Alex. "Thanks…for…for wanting to help…" she whispered to the floatzel once he had gone. "If I'm going to do this…I'm going to need all the help I can get."

"Alex can come if she wants," Redclaw added. "We're not going to order her around." A grunt from Blazefang was the only response.

Glad that the argument was somewhat settled, at least for now, Snowcrystal looked up to see the forest in the distance, remembering that that was where she had last seen Stormblade. Once again, she found herself wondering whether the human who had captured him was able to take care of him properly.

They were approaching a place that had a few clumps of scattered trees here and there, and Snowcrystal began wondering if they should go back to the forest, or whether it was too dangerous to be worth the risk.

Any further thoughts about the forest or the route ahead were rudely interrupted by enraged shouts from Thunder at the back of the group.

"Leave me alone, or I'll chop your tails off!" the scyther was screaming, her eyes locked on Rosie, who was standing with her fur bristling and all nine tails lashing.

"I'm not afraid of you!" Rosie spat back. "A blind hatchling could see that you wouldn't last a second fighting a fire type! You probably couldn't even get close to me without passing out again…you need to learn your place, learn to shut up, and learn that you aren't the most powerful pokémon ever-you get weak just like the rest of us!" A few embers flew from her mouth as she spat out the last words.

Thunder looked murderous, but she made no move to attack, and Redclaw stepped between them before a fight could escalate further.

"All right, stop this now," the arcanine muttered angrily. "Rosie, go up with Snowcrystal at the front of the group. Thunder…"

"I'll do what I want! That ninetales can only fight with petty words. I can tear her apart!"

"And you will do nothing of the sort," Redclaw growled, his voice loosing its usual patience and gaining an irritated edge to it. "Stay here. She won't bother you."

He waited for Thunder to respond, but she only stared back at him, neither replying or making any sort of move to attack. Redclaw turned away and followed Rosie, who glanced back at Thunder and glared at her, sticking out her tongue.

"Coward!" Thunder shouted at her, but she looked too exhausted to try and carry the fight further.

Snowcrystal watched the others, most of whom had paused to watch the brief fight, turn and start walking again, but she stayed put. Then, wondering if she was going crazy for thinking this would work, made her way over to Thunder, hoping to be able to calm her down.

On her way to the back of the group, she passed Blazefang and Wildflame, who were walking side by side. Wildflame glanced at Thunder. "She doesn't get along with anyone here, does she?"

"She doesn't get along with anyone at all," Blazefang replied with an annoyed flick of his ear. "I don't see why she doesn't just leave. No one wants her here…"

Their voices faded as Snowcrystal passed them and approached the weakened scyther.

"What do you want?" Thunder growled, though she sounded less aggressive now; Snowcrystal was pretty certain that she secretly didn't want a fight.

"I…I just wanted to talk with you," Snowcrystal stammered, hesitating a moment. Thunder's scythes still looked very sharp.

"Why?"

"Well, I just do…" she replied, not sure what Thunder would think if she told her she was trying to help. "And you can talk to me while we walk. That way, we might not get so tired if we're focusing on something else…" She paused, wondering if Thunder would take that as some sort of insult about being weak.

"What good would that do?" Thunder muttered. "Talking will waste energy, not save it!"

Snowcrystal wasn't sure how to reply, but at least Thunder didn't seem any angrier. She opened her mouth to reply, but a voice from up ahead interrupted her.

"Snowcrystal, Thunder, are you coming?"

Snowcrystal recognized Redclaw's voice and turned to see the arcanine looking at them. Without another word, she turned and followed the others, Thunder trailing along more slowly.

* * *

By the time the group stopped for a break, everyone felt exhausted, even those who had not made the entire journey up the mountain. Now that the strongest members of the group had hunted and brought back as much as they could find (though it wasn't much), everyone was separating from one another to rest. Snowcrystal wondered if it would be a good idea to try to talk to Thunder again. She was surprised how calm the scyther had been during their last conversation…well, 'calm' as far as Thunder was concerned. She was just worried that more fights would break out and someone would be hurt. Hopefully, she'd be able to reason with Thunder and at the very least get her to make sure to stay away from the others.

"Hey, Thunder," she said cheerfully as she approached the scyther, trying to sound as if she was happy to see her rather than dreading it, like she was really feeling. "Do you think-"

"What is it with you?" Thunder growled from where she was lying on the grass, fixing her blue eyes on Snowcrystal. "Why are you talking to me? I don't even like you."

_I know…_ Snowcrystal thought, suppressing a frustrated sigh, _the only one you don't hate is Nightshade_. Nightshade_…_ She thought of something, hoping that it would be the answer she needed to keep Thunder out of trouble. "How about you walk by Nightshade when we leave again?" she suggested, "he won't let Rosie bother you."

"I do not need his help," Thunder growled, getting up and standing to her full height. She towered over Snowcrystal, making the growlithe cower.

"I didn't mean that…" she whispered. _Why did Thunder seem uncaring about comments related to her weakness before, but seemed offended all over again by them now?_

Thunder didn't reply. Instead she merely lay down again, as if forgetting that Snowcrystal was there. "Besides," she muttered. "Nightshade's an idiot. I don't really listen to what he says. It's all nonsense."

"No…Nightshade is really smart," Snowcrystal replied. "I…I thought you liked talking to him."

"I do not," Thunder replied. "Not anymore. He says he _understands my pain_," Thunder said in a sneering voice. "But he's wrong. He thinks he can talk to me like he had the same experiences…like there was something physical blocking his way. But it was his own stupidity that was blocking his way, and he can't even see that now! He tells me to trust other pokémon, but then tells me these things that make me realize how much of a mistake it was for him to do so! He's angry and wants me to make his own mistake. He wants me to be miserable like him. But I'm not that stupid…"

By now Thunder was staring at Snowcrystal angrily, though at the moment, the growlithe hardly cared. Thunder's words confused her and she had little idea of what the scyther was talking about, but whatever it was, she didn't like to hear Thunder talking about Nightshade, or anyone, this way. She wanted to shout to Thunder that she was the one who didn't understand, but she said nothing.

"I was trapped!" Thunder continued, nearly loud enough to be heard by the others, though luckily, none of them seemed to notice. "If I could have gotten out and killed Master I would have!"

At this moment, Snowcrystal felt like she should speak up. "Nightshade is not miserable, Thunder," Snowcrystal replied. _But you are…_ she wanted to add, but held her tongue.

"What would you know?" Thunder responded angrily. "You're just as delusional as the rest of them."

Snowcrystal bit back a confused response. There was no use arguing, she thought, when Thunder was so set in her own beliefs…whatever they were. Instead, she asked another question that had been on her mind. "So…you don't actually trust Nightshade?" she said quietly, pretty sure that she knew what the answer would be.

"No," Thunder replied, but the slight wavering in the tone of her voice made Snowcrystal wonder if she really did, even a little, or without realizing it. "But I'm right, and he probably knows it! …That's why he's trying to drag me down! I was right and he was wrong!"

Snowcrystal was pretty sure that at this point, there was no sense trying to get Thunder to understand or even to explain what she meant about Nightshade. She couldn't be sure if the scyther was actually serious or just rambling things off the top of her head. Without another word, the growlithe turned and ran back to the others, still feeling unnerved. She did not want to talk to Thunder anymore, that was for sure.

"Snowcrystal?" a voice called to her from behind a group of trees. She recognized Redclaw's voice again.

"Yes?" she called, hoping her voice didn't give away her mood.

"We're going to start moving again," the arcanine told her, peering from around a tree trunk. Most of the others had gathered there already, and none of them seemed aware of the odd conversation between her and Thunder. Thunder herself soon joined the group of waiting pokémon, looking just as she always did and giving no sign that anything had happened. She didn't even look angry.

As Redclaw started to lead the way, Snowcrystal paused for a moment, still wondering about the things Thunder had said.

"Are you all right, Snowcrystal?"

The growlithe looked up to see Nightshade standing nearby, looking concerned.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," she muttered, quickly hurrying by him and up ahead with Spark, Alex, and Redclaw at the front of the group. She caught a glance of Thunder out of the corner of her eye, watching the group with an unreadable expression.

Snowcrystal had the unsettling feeling that things were only going to get worse between Thunder and the rest of the pokémon in the group. They couldn't exactly leave her behind to fend for herself, yet how long could they keep her with them before someone got hurt?

* * *

"It's getting dark," Spark muttered with a quick glance at the sky.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Blazefang muttered from behind him, looking irritated. Snowcrystal knew that the houndour was nocturnal, but after such a long time traveling, no one really seemed to care when they slept anymore as long as they got a chance to do so.

"Well, I wouldn't mind sleeping now. Dark or not, everyone's exhausted," Rosie stated loudly, looking around at the others with a glare that dared them to disagree.

"Rosie's right," Redclaw agreed, "we're all tired. Let's rest."

The traveling pokémon settled down as the sky grew dark, some curling up together in small groups and others lying down by themselves. No one bothered to try and keep a look out; in this place they figured they didn't have much to fear, especially since they made up such a large group of pokémon.

Snowcrystal didn't feel much like sleeping. She felt restless, still going over what Articuno had told her in her mind. She had to find some other pokémon who knew more about the Forbidden Attacks, and now that the entirety of her quest dawned on her, it seemed almost impossible. Watching the sky darken to black, Snowcrystal lay down against Redclaw's forepaw, thinking that, if anything, she should at least rest if she wasn't going to sleep.

* * *

The sound of something moving woke Snowcrystal from a light doze. Instantly she sat up, surprised that she had fallen asleep and wondering if there actually was some sort of danger out here on the plains. However, a quick look told her it was only Thunder, pacing back and forth a little ways away from the others. Snowcrystal glanced at her sleeping companions; none of them had been bothered by the noise. She watched Thunder for a moment and then lay back down.

Then without warning, the scyther suddenly darted away at full speed. Lifting her head in surprise again, Snowcrystal dug her claws into Redclaw's fur.

"Redclaw, wake up!"

The arcanine's head shot up, surprising Snowcrystal a bit as he turned his head to look around. "What is it?"

"Thunder!" the growlithe replied. "She just…ran off!"

Redclaw gave her a startled look before standing up quickly, his head pointed in the direction Thunder had gone while he sniffed the air carefully. "Follow me," the arcanine whispered, and without waking the others, he set off in Thunder's direction.

Snowcrystal tried hard to keep up with him, but even long days of running through the mountains had not prepared her to keep up with an arcanine. Her legs simply weren't long enough, and she could barely trail behind him. Luckily, they didn't have to run long, but when they found Thunder, Snowcrystal could hardly believe what she saw.

The scyther was leaping and slashing at another figure, a bug type with an odd, unnatural sheen to his armor. In a moment when Thunder's opponent paused, Snowcrystal recognized him instantly. _Scytheclaw! What was he doing here? Had he come to get revenge on them?_

With a frantic look at Redclaw, Snowcrystal wordlessly begged him to do something. She was too afraid of hitting Thunder to use a fire attack, but to her relief, Redclaw only hesitated a second before leaping into the fray, pushing Thunder aside and pinning Scytheclaw face down on the ground. The scizor stayed motionless as Redclaw held him, seemingly with little effort.

_The fight ended…just like that?_Snowcrystal thought, feeling as if Scytheclaw should have put up more of a fight, or at least been a bit more prepared for Redclaw's attack. But the scizor still didn't move. She then remembered that he had fought Nightshade very recently, and the heracross still had_his_ battle wounds.

"What are you doing here?" Redclaw growled, his fangs gleaming in the starlight.

"I could ask you the same question!" Scytheclaw spat.

Snowcrystal's eyes wandered to where Thunder was, surprised to see her lying on the ground as if she thought no one would notice her. She seemed exhausted and weak.

"What do you want with us?" Redclaw growled.

"Nothing!" the scizor cried. "It was _she_ who attacked me!" He tried to glance over at Thunder, but the way Redclaw's paw was pushing him to the ground made it impossible.

Now that Snowcrystal got a good look at Scytheclaw, she could tell that he was still injured from the battle. Not only that, but he had gotten some new injuries as well, and parts of his normally shiny armor were filthy. She couldn't say she felt sorry for him, but it certainly explained why Redclaw had been able to easily overpower him.

"What's that around your neck?" Scytheclaw snapped suddenly, jolting Snowcrystal out of her thoughts. She noticed that the scizor was staring straight at her, his eyes blazing. "Is that one of them? One of those stones?"

"N…no…" Snowcrystal replied, shaking her head as she backed away, almost unconsciously. He didn't mean…the Forbidden Attacks, did he? Did he know about them?

"That's enough!" Redclaw growled with another glare at Scytheclaw. "Look, if you don't want a flamethrower to the face, I suggest you get up and walk back the way you came from…now!" In a swift movement he released Scytheclaw, who glared murderously at the arcanine before turning and running off toward a large group of rocks.

Snowcrystal glanced at her friend after the scizor had retreated. "Redclaw…do you think Scytheclaw thought my stone was a Forbidden Attack?"

"I don't know…" Redclaw replied, but she could tell that he was worried. "Even if he does know something," he added before Snowcrystal could speak, "it's too late now. And I doubt he'd know more than a legendary like Articuno does anyway."

"But-"

"Several pokémon know the legend," Redclaw continued, "and…I know you want to ask pokémon about these attacks, but we can't trust him."

"I wasn't going to-" Snowcrystal began, but stopped mid-sentence. She had detected the hopelessness in Redclaw's voice. So many pokémon knew the legend…but how many of them actually knew something that would help them?

* * *

When the three of them returned to the rest of the group (Thunder reluctantly), Snowcrystal felt even more restless than ever, too restless to even lie down. Even after Redclaw fell asleep, she stayed awake, pacing back and forth as she scanned the sky, absorbed in her own thoughts.

What if Scytheclaw _had_ known more than Redclaw suspected? After all, Cyclone's army had moved through their valley, so what if one of Scytheclaw's pokémon had overheard one of Cyclone's and now they knew about it? Come to think of it, Cyclone himself probably knew a lot more about the Forbidden Attacks than she did, but there was no way she could talk to him. But maybe…maybe she really could talk to Scytheclaw after all.

She stood up, wondering if she should ask someone to come with her, though she wasn't sure if they would. And Nightshade and Redclaw couldn't come…Scytheclaw wouldn't cooperate with them. But he had nothing against her…

After a moment of thought, Snowcrystal silently got up and crept away. She knew that what she was about to do was risky, but she wasn't about to turn down her first real clue to finding out more about the Forbidden Attacks. She could only hope that everything would go as planned.

It wasn't hard to track Scytheclaw's scent over to the large rocks, but he wasn't there when she reached them. He must have moved on, further away from her group. Undeterred, Snowcrystal followed the scent trail to a small grove of trees, thinking that it was a likely spot for the scizor to rest. As she got closer, the scent grew stronger, and as she walked into the trees, she grew more and more certain that her hunch was right. As quietly as she could, she crept further into the grove, the trees' branches obscuring most of the moonlight and shrouding her in near-darkness.

A darker shadow fell over her as she stepped around a large bush, and before she could even pause to wonder what it was, something slammed into her body and knocked her to the ground. Her head landed against a small pile of pointed rocks and she heard a small snap; she felt her crystal slide off her neck and fall onto the ground. The plant fibers holding it around her neck had broken. She stared up in shock as a red pincer reached down and grabbed her around the neck. She froze, not daring to move in case her throat was cut by the razor edges of the pincer. Her eyes slowly moved upwards to lock themselves with Scytheclaw's. The scizor looked wild and desperate, as if he wanted something out of her, but she couldn't even begin to guess what he could want. He wasn't going to try to eat her, was he? She was contemplating risking an attempt to use a fire attack when the scizor spoke.

"Do you have it?" he growled, but Snowcrystal could only stare at him in confusion. "That power! The power that the army was looking for! The army that _your_ friend knew about!" He paused, looking at the terrified growlithe suspiciously. "Don't even try to tell me that you don't know. My servants heard pokémon from that army talking. It comes from strange stones! Yours is one of them, isn't it? You wouldn't carry it around otherwise!"

Scytheclaw suddenly released her, leaving her panting for breath as he stooped over her and picked up the broken necklace. The crystal was still attached, glowing faintly despite a filthy covering of dirt on its surface.

"That's not one of them," she gasped, giving Scytheclaw what she hoped was a convincingly honest look. He shot her a glare and she added, "to activate one of the real ones, I…I think you have to touch its center…Blazefang mentioned that…so you can try it if you want."

She watched as Scytheclaw tapped the crystal a few times and turned to look at her. "I already have it," he muttered, throwing the crystal down at her paws. "You try it."

Snowcrystal obediently did as she was told, and, as she expected, got no result. "I've already done that, and I don't have any power," she explained, and quickly added, "but…that's what I wanted…I mean, I came to talk to you. I wanted to ask you what you knew about the…the…"

"Your houndour friend has it…" Scytheclaw began suddenly, "the army wanted him. He must have taken the crystal's power. He's the one I need."

A cold chill swept through Snowcrystal's body. Surely Scytheclaw wasn't trying to gather pokémon who could use Forbidden Attacks too? "Look," she began, "I'll get Blazefang…" She cringed, hoping he wouldn't see through her lie, and went on, "I'll get Blazefang if you tell me what you know."

"You want me to trust you?" Scytheclaw sneered.

"You won't be able to get him on your own, not with my friends guarding him," Snowcrystal pointed out.

She expected Scytheclaw to be angry, but the look he gave her was only one of defeat. "Fine," he muttered, in a voice that seemed to fit his weakened state much more than the angry growl he had been threatening her with before.

Snowcrystal kept silent and watched him expectantly, prepared to run in case he made any sudden move to attack her. Even if he was weak, she wasn't taking any chances. She'd seen what he'd done to Nightshade.

Scytheclaw looked away from her as he started to speak. "I found that stone in the mouth of an old arcanine statue at the bottom of a pool. When I touched it, it felt really strange, almost as if a pokémon were using a psychic attack on me. I passed out then, but when I woke up…"

"Oh no…" Snowcrystal whispered. Scytheclaw turned to glare at her and she realized that the words had come out of her mouth before she'd even realized it. Even now that she knew he was angry, any fear she would have felt was drowned out by the realization that Scytheclaw could have very well gotten hold of a Forbidden Attack, and who knew what he'd done since he'd been on the loose with it.

"What?" he demanded, turning around and straightening up to full height so he towered over the growlithe. "What was that thing? Do _you_ know what it was?"

"Yes…" she whispered silently, too afraid to try and lie even though by now she was sure that Scytheclaw didn't know much about what the Forbidden Attacks were, just that they were a 'power.' "That was a Forbidden Attack."

Scytheclaw paused, his angry look vanishing to be replaced with a new look, one of complete confusion. "A…a what?"

Snowcrystal realized that the best thing to do now would be to explain to Scytheclaw what the Forbidden Attacks were. Maybe, if he knew, he'd know better than to use one. "A Forbidden Attack," she repeated. "Blazefang has one. They're extremely powerful, but extremely destructive and…and they make the user go insane, if they're used too often…and it gets harder to resist the more they are used. The wounds caused by the attacks…don't-I mean, might not heal. If pokémon know you have one, they could try to kill you…because if you die, the power is transported to the nearest steel type."

Scytheclaw simply stared at her. "You've got it all wrong!" he snarled. "Sounds like nothing but silly tales used to frighten young pokémon. Nonsense…but a 'Forbidden Attack'…" He suddenly looked thoughtful. "That could be what they're called…I touched the stone and got this power. But what you're saying about insanity is a lie. It hasn't been hard to resist using it and I haven't started going insane!"

"You mean you used it?" Snowcrystal asked, fighting the terror that threatened to overwhelm her. What would they do now that another Forbidden Attack was on the loose? She forced herself to become calm enough to ask another question. "Did you…find out what it does?"

"Yes," Scytheclaw replied, confirming Snowcrystal's worst suspicions. "I found out. I…I can heal things."

Snowcrystal suddenly felt as though everything she'd learned about the Forbidden Attacks had turned upside-down. Of all possible things she could think of the steel type or bug type Forbidden Attack being capable of, this was the last thing she had expected to hear. _Healing things?_ That didn't sound like a Forbidden Attack at all…

"But at a cost…" Scytheclaw continued. He was turned away from her now, lost in thought as though he wasn't even aware he was talking to someone anymore. "I found out when I was hunting and injured a pidgey instead of killing it. That's when I first used the power…I can heal things, but it causes _me_ pain. And I cannot heal my own injuries. I certainly tried. The power is absolutely useless to the one who has it! And that-" He turned around to look at Snowcrystal as if suddenly remembering she was there. "Is why I need the houndour. I need him to heal me so I can survive in this awful place!"

"Blazefang can't heal…" Snowcrystal whispered, unsure of what to say or even if he'd believe her. "His attack…well, it's destructive…it's wrong…it does nothing but hurt other pokémon…Scytheclaw…I'm not even sure if what you have is a Forbidden Attack at all!"

"What do you know?" the scizor growled. "That army was searching for a power and this had to be part of it. If it wasn't a…Forbidden Attack…or whatever they were searching for, what is it?"

"I don't know," Snowcrystal replied with complete honesty. "But if you come with me…well, I think you should talk to my friends."

"Forget it," Scytheclaw growled, suddenly seeming furious again. "If Blazefang doesn't have the same power then what use is he to me? I won't go back to them just so they can attack me again!"

Before Snowcrystal could stop him, the scizor had bounded off into the trees, leaving her alone and confused in the darkness beside her broken and tattered crystal amulet.

* * *

"A large group of pokémon passed this way, Volco. That's what we're looking for, right?"

The typhlosion grinned, earning a rewarding pat from his master as he scanned the area around him, fresh with signs that a large group of pokémon had passed this way not long ago. The canyon was rich with vegetation and the river provided him, his master, and the remaining pokémon with all the food and water they needed. The going would be good for at least a while.

"Come on, Volco," Master stated, turning and walking again, following the sparkling river. "Looks like there were quite a few different species in this group. Plenty to choose from, eh?"

Volco padded quietly after him, his senses alert as he scanned the trees around him, noting with glee that this place seemed to be untouched by any trainer before them.

* * *

Nighttime had also fallen upon Justin and Katie. The two friends and Katie's pokémon had stopped for the night, lost in the confusing plains and with no further sign of the white growlithe they had been so diligently searching for. Even poochyena had become confused, and no longer seemed to be able to find a scent to follow. Justin and Persian sat away from the others-Justin still refused to talk to Katie about anything other than the white growlithe. He simply sat with his back to them, alone in his thoughts.

Stormblade was, for the first time since being captured, sleeping outside that night. He had managed to get his new trainer to understand that he preferred it, and she had let him lie down on one of her blankets instead of making him spend another night in the pokéball. Stormblade had never disliked pokéballs, but they had always felt so unnatural compared to sleeping beneath the sky and stars.

Although his pain had been dulled quite a bit by the human's medicine and he could think clearer, it was still distracting enough to keep him awake most of the time. He had done nothing but rest since Katie had captured him, but he still felt exhausted. Even finally being able to get enough food hadn't restored his energy like he thought it would have. He just seemed to feel more and more tired.

But at least, he thought, the humans had lost Snowcrystal's trail. The growlithe could go on to find Articuno without the threat of being captured by a pokéball. Briefly, he wondered how far they'd gotten, and whether or not help was on the way for Snowcrystal's pack already. And whether Spark was still on his way to find a new home, or if he had somehow found one already. The scyther kept his gaze focused on the stars, certain that if Snowcrystal hadn't found Articuno yet, then she would soon, and everything would finally be right for the Growlithe and her clan.

Under the same stars that Stormblade was watching, Snowcrystal slowly made her way back to the group, her broken amulet hanging from her mouth. Feeling more confused than ever now, she now felt further away from her goal than she ever had.

_To be continued..._


	47. A New Destination

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 47-A New Destination**

A few days had passed since Snowcrystal's encounter with Scytheclaw, and the pokémon found themselves nearing the canyon once again. They had decided to rest early the previous day, but everyone was still tired. Morning had come faster than anyone had anticipated, and as the group of pokémon waited for those who were currently out hunting to return, they talked in low voices about what Snowcrystal had learned.

Snowcrystal herself kept out of their conversations; she had talked about it enough. Instead she simply waited for the hunters to return while trying to drown the sound of the others out. Her crystal amulet had been fixed by Nightshade, who had managed to find some thin but tough plant fibers to replace the broken ones that had held the crystal around her neck before. She wasn't sure where Nightshade was now; he had flown off to find food for himself and hadn't yet returned.

As she was contemplating walking away from Wildflame, Spark, and Rosie, who were talking to each other worriedly about the Forbidden Attacks, and finding a quieter spot, she noticed Redclaw heading back from a grove of trees. The arcanine had a taillow in his jaws, but nothing else. Snowcrystal hoped Alex would return with something more, because one taillow wouldn't be much of a meal for all of the meat-eating pokémon here.

Blazefang's head perked up as Redclaw approached, and he stood up from the clump of dry bushes he'd been resting in. "That's it?" he scoffed. "That arcanine needs a few hunting lessons, I think."

"Hey," Rosie snapped, "he's the one doing the work. I bet you're not such a great hunter yourself."

"I'm a better hunter than he is!" Blazefang growled. "And I'd be able to catch much more if you pokémon would let me!"

Snowcrystal watched Rosie roll her eyes and look away, while Blazefang lay back down with a frustrated grunt. It had been decided by the group that Blazefang would not hunt; everyone was too worried about the risk of him loosing control of his Forbidden Attack. Although Blazefang tried to insist that he wouldn't, no one believed him after the incident on Articuno's mountain.

Redclaw trotted up to them wearily, dropping the taillow at their feet, where Wildflame sniffed at it, looking disappointed. "Where should we head now?" Redclaw asked them. "We're nearing the canyon again, and I know you don't want to go back through the forest…"

"Or past it," Rosie added. "That's where Cyclone and his followers went."

"We could travel across the canyon and then explore the land on the other side," Redclaw suggested. "Cyclone's pokémon headed in that direction…" He turned his head toward the direction of the forest trees on the side of the canyon they were currently on. "So we wouldn't run into them."

"I guess it's as good as any other place," Rosie muttered. "I just hope it has more prey."

"You pokémon just have no idea where you're going," Blazefang muttered. "You could be heading away from any hope of finding out about the Forbidden Attacks for all you know."

Snowcrystal inwardly flinched; she knew Blazefang had a point. Right now their only plan was to rely on pure chance. After finding Articuno and learning about Scytheclaw's power, Snowcrystal's hopes had been slowly deteriorating as she realized more and more just how daunting their task was, even if there were a lot of pokémon to talk to. She didn't like the fact that they had had a set destination for their journey-Articuno's mountain-and now that they had nearly reached the canyon they seemed right back where they started, alone and simply left to wander aimlessly.

"What about the humans?" Spark suddenly said, causing everyone to look at him. Undaunted, he continued. "I mean, the humans know about the legend. Maybe we could go back to…back to the city!"

"Too dangerous," Rosie replied. "You think any of us, especially Snowcrystal, would be safe wandering around a human city?"

"You have any other idea?" Spark retorted irritably. "At least there we'd have some sort of start; it's better than wandering around in the wilderness."

"You just love humans too much," Rosie growled.

"Well, hi, everyone!" a cheery voice called, putting the argument to a stop. Snowcrystal turned to see Alex standing a few feet away with a couple of goldeen at her feet. Snowcrystal had been so distracted by the others that she hadn't heard the floatzel approach. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing that concerns you," Blazefang growled with a glare at the floatzel. "Now do us a favor and quit stalking us!"

"Hey, she brought us food, didn't she?" Rosie stated. "Which is more than can be said for you," she added with a grin that earned her a seething look from Blazefang.

"We're talking about where we're going to travel after this," Spark told the floatzel. "But let's talk about that later! I'm hungry!"

The pokémon agreed to split up what little food they had gathered, and when Thunder reluctantly approached them, Redclaw tore off a chunk of meat for each pokémon, all of whom looked less than pleased with the amount they got. Thunder grabbed hers and walked out of earshot of the others before sitting down to eat. Each of them were eating in silence when Nightshade returned.

Spark, who had finished his meal in a few bites, looked at him and asked, "Nightshade, do you think we should go back to the human's city? I mean, it's the one place we know of that might have people…or pokémon, who know more about the Forbidden Attacks."

Nightshade seemed surprised at the question, but before he had a chance to answer, Rosie spoke up.

"You really think we'd be able to find out anything without some human coming up to us to fight or capture us?" she asked. "We wouldn't even be able to get close to any useful-"

"But the pokémon could know!" Spark protested. "I could pose as a trainer pokémon on some sort of errand. If I picked up a few pieces of paper from a garbage bin they'd just think I was delivering something for my trainer. A few of you could do that too and we could search different parts of the city, asking the pokémon. I've been thinking about this ever since we left the mountain…I think it could work. Unless, you know, you just hate humans too much…"

"That could work," Redclaw replied. "I'm too big to pass for an errand running pokémon, but I, and those who don't want to take part, could wait in the forest."

"So you're supporting his crazy plan?" Rosie growled.

"It's not crazy," Redclaw responded, sounding as if he had to struggle a bit to keep his voice down. "Let's face it, Blazefang's right. We really have no idea where we're going."

Snowcrystal listened, not sure she wanted to join in the argument. She had to agree with Spark, however. She had seen the painting in the library in the city depicting a human artist's interpretations of the Forbidden Attacks. They knew _something_, probably more than most pokémon. And pokémon around them probably knew something more too. But traveling back to Stonedust City seemed so dangerous…but then again, wasn't wandering around foreign lands dangerous as well? "I…I agree with Spark," she said hesitantly, aware that a few of the other pokémon were looking at her strangely.

"What about those of us who are looking for homes?" Wildflame asked, "that includes you, Redclaw," she added, turning to the arcanine.

"I know," the arcanine replied. "But I don't see anywhere suitable for me to live out here, and truthfully I'd rather help Snowcrystal than stay in a strange place alone. If we find wild arcanine, however, I will join them. Until then, I'd rather be of some use to someone else rather than simply wander about on my own."

Wildflame muttered something about him being crazy but said no more. Instead she just looked down at her paws and let the others talk.

"I don't like it," Rosie said quietly, shaking her head as if trying to shake off a bad thought. "I really don't like it…"

"You don't have to come," Spark reminded her. "I mean-"

"So you're just going to leave me here all alone?" Rosie retorted.

"No," Spark replied. "I just…thought maybe you could go your separate way once we were close to the city."

Rosie didn't look satisfied with that answer either. "What was wrong with exploring the wild?" she asked.

Blazefang watched the two arguing pokémon through narrowed eyes. "Pfft…humans," he muttered. "I'm no one's errand pokémon." Beside him, Alex yawned.

"Look, you won't even have to take a step in the city!" Spark was telling Rosie. "You could wait out in the forest with the others…far enough away so the humans won't see you!"

Up until then, Nightshade had only been watching and listening silently. "What I think," he began, and even Spark and Rosie stopped their arguing to listen to him, "is that Spark has the best idea. If all the Forbidden Attacks are as dangerous as Shadowflare is, think of how many pokémon could be hurt by it if we don't find the answer and tell the legendaries. If this human city has some sort of a clue, I think we should follow it. It's better than wandering around blindly hoping for information to simply fall on us. Spark's plan is a good one, and going near the city will be no more dangerous than wandering about around here. I think we should listen to Spark."

"I know that I will," Snowcrystal spoke up firmly before anyone else could reply. "I know I won't be much help once I reach the city, but…I'll find something I can do. I need to find this information. And someone in that human city might know what we need, or at least have some sort of clue."

"But…" Rosie began, sounding very dismayed now that she could see she was outnumbered.

"I never thought I'd say this," Blazefang muttered, "but I agree with the jolteon. I'd rather be following some sort of clue than wandering out in the middle of nowhere. The faster I learn how to get rid of this attack, the better."

"What about you?" Rosie asked Wildflame, a hopeful look in her eyes.

"Makes no difference to me," Wildflame muttered. Rosie's hopeful expression fell.

"I'm sorry, Rosie," Redclaw told the ninetales, "but this looks like our best chance. I'm sure Spark knows enough about the humans to keep us safe as long as we're careful. We won't let anyone be captured."

Rosie looked down at her paws and did not reply.

"So it's decided then?" Spark asked. "I know it's risky, but at least we know what we're up against, whereas we have no idea what's out _there_…" He looked in the direction of the canyon, and Snowcrystal suddenly found herself unwilling to find out what lurked beyond it as well.

"I think it is decided," Redclaw replied. "We should be safe going back through the canyon, now that Scytheclaw is gone, and there's plenty of prey there. Prey that we need."

"Come on, Rosie!" Spark cried. "Foooooooood!"

"I still think it's a bad idea!" the ninetales stated, ignoring Spark.

"I'm sorry," Snowcrystal told her. "But my mind is made up. I'm heading back to the city, along with anyone that wants to come. You…you won't even have to go near the humans, Rosie. It won't be so bad."

"I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I?" she muttered. "Go with you or get left alone…"

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what to say. Redclaw was already looking toward the canyon, a newfound hope in his eyes. "We won't put you in danger, Rosie," he tried to assure her. "But Nightshade's right…there are lives at stake now that Cyclone is searching for the Forbbiden Attacks. Spark's idea is more likely to lead us to answers. We should trust him."

Spark beamed at Redclaw, but Rosie still looked angry. However, it was clear she realized that it had been decided; they were going to travel to the place with the most chance of finding information about the Forbidden Attacks.

"Let's get going," Blazefang growled impatiently, walking away from the scraggly bushes he'd been resting by and following Redclaw.

"I'll come!" Alex announced. "I can help. Maybe the humans know about the ocean too…oh! I bet they do!" She bolted off after Blazefang and Redclaw, overtaking them and turning around to wait for the rest of the group eagerly.

"Thunder, we're leaving!" Redclaw called back to the scyther.

Thunder looked up at them for a moment, seemed to realize they were starting to travel again, and slowly walked back toward them from where she had been eating, seeming agitated. "We're going already?" she growled when she reached them.

No one bothered to answer, probably, Snowcrystal thought, because no one could think of anything to say to her that wouldn't make her mad. They followed Redclaw and Alex in silence, each with their own whirlwinds of thought.

Then Thunder stopped in her tracks. "Why are we going that way?" she asked in a low, threatening voice that didn't really match her question. "Are we going across the canyon?"

"No," Spark told her. "We're going back into it. We'll climb up the other end by where the cave was and go back the way we came."

Snowcrystal realized that Thunder didn't yet know of their plans to return to the human city, since she had been away from the group at the time. "We've decided to go back to the human's city," she told Thunder. "To find out about the Forbidden Attacks."

"What?" Thunder replied, suddenly looking more furious than Snowcrystal had seen her in a long time. The other pokémon stopped momentarily to look at her; they could all tell that she obviously hadn't taken the news well at all. "Go back to where humans live? I'd rather die!"

Snowcrystal opened her mouth to speak, but Redclaw did for her. "You won't have to take a step inside that city," he told her. "Just a few of us will. You'll stay out in the forest with-"

"NO!" Thunder replied fiercely, lifting her scythes and baring her teeth. "I won't go near it!"

"No one's asking you to come," Blazefang muttered. "Go on and run off now if you must."

Snowcrystal wished Blazefang would keep quiet. Everyone knew, though no one openly admitted, that Thunder relied on them for food; she would starve on her own. Luckily, this time Thunder did not reply, and as the rest of the group turned and continued walking, she trailed behind, still glaring daggers at them.

The group of pokémon carried on until they reached the canyon's edge. It was there that they decided to stop for another rest. This part of the canyon cliff's edge was dotted with bushes and foliage which provided them shade from the sun.

"You think one of us should go looking for food down there?" Spark asked, peering down the rocky ledge that led downward into the canyon, where he could see plenty of foliage growing near the stream at the bottom.

"Good idea," Rosie agreed.

Redclaw sighed. "I suppose so," he began, standing up. "We won't have to worry about any hostility now that Scytheclaw's gone. Who wants to go with me?"

"I will," Snowcrystal stated as she looked up.

"So will I!" Spark chimed in.

"Anyone else?" Redclaw asked wearily. No one said anything. "All right, come on you two," Redclaw told Spark and Snowcrystal, who sprung to their paws and followed him. Getting up from her resting place, Thunder began to follow them too.

"And where are _you_ going?" Rosie sneered.

Thunder bared her teeth at the ninetales. "With them!" she yelled with startling ferocity, looking almost as if she wanted to tear Rosie's head off just for questioning her.

Though the look in Thunder's eyes made Snowcrystal back away, Rosie seemed unaffected. "Huh, like you could catch anything with those injuries," the ninetales snorted.

Thunder made no reply, but continued to glare at the fire type. Then she stepped forward and lifted her scythes. Rosie stood without flinching.

"Face it," she said, "it's true."

"Now hold on, Thunder," Nightshade spoke up as he limped over toward the two angry pokémon. "I don't think it's a good idea to go wandering off now. You want to get strong again, right? And the best way to let that happen is to rest-"

"I am strong!" Thunder shouted. "Stronger than you are! I don't want to wait around for food!"

Snowcrystal couldn't understand just what had been making Thunder so agitated the past few days, and especially this morning, but the look on the scyther's face made her seem like she wanted to attack someone right then and there. It worried her a bit. She had a feeling that Thunder could really care less whether or not Nightshade thought she was weak; she just seemed so furious that other pokémon were questioning or disagreeing with her. She had acted in such a way before, but she had never seemed this angry over such small things.

"If you wait here," Nightshade told Thunder calmly, "the others will do the work for you. You don't have to do anything and you can be all by yourself while you wait."

From her clump of bushes, Rosie snorted. "What are we, her servants?"

"The others are doing this so you can rest," Nightshade continued. "I am resting too. It does not mean I, or you, is weak, or that we're telling you this to order you around. We're not trying to force you, I just-"

"I don't care," Thunder spat, "I want to go looking for food instead of waiting around here!"

"Don't you think it would be better to lie in the shade? Where it's cool? The others will bring the food-"

"I don't want to!" Thunder shouted, her voice full of barely concealed menace. Her eyes narrowed and she paced back and forth a few times, her scythes twitching and her eyes on the heracross. "Are you stupid?" she screamed, her voice escalating to a much louder volume. "I just told you I didn't want to! How many times do I have to tell you? Are you just going to ignore what I say like everyone else?" Thunder's shouts had become even louder and more furious, and Snowcrystal glanced at Redclaw, wondering if they ought to just leave.

"Thunder, _please_…" Nightshade began, a tone of worry creeping into his voice that Snowcrystal was not accustomed to. Nightshade never sounded worried, and to hear him sound like that now was somewhat startling. "Just do this one thing for me. I promise I'll listen to you. Stay here…please?"

Snowcrystal turned her attention to Thunder, waiting to see how the scyther would react. At the moment, she was staring at Nightshade with loathing. Then, with no warning at all, she darted forward, and slashed her scythes across Nightshade's body.

"Thunder, stop!" Snowcrystal shouted, but before the words had even finished leaving her mouth, Thunder had knocked Nightshade to the ground and stabbed her scythe into his back. Snowcrystal watched in horror as blood flowed down Nightshade's damaged armored shell and onto the grass. To her relief, Nightshade pulled away from Thunder, and though this caused more blood to flow as the scythe was pulled out, it wasn't nearly the sort of amount Snowcrystal would have expected; though damaged from the fight with Scytheclaw, Nightshade's thick shell had prevented Thunder's blade from going too deep.

But before Nightshade or anyone else could retaliate, Thunder sliced at the heracross again, and Nightshade could only try to block her scythe from hitting his eyes as Thunder tore into any weak spot she could find-namely Nightshade's wounds-with both scythes.

It was hardly more than a second later when Thunder was roughly pulled off Nightshade by Redclaw, who had sunk his teeth into her back. But the damage had been done. Flinging Thunder to the ground, Redclaw pressed his paw down on the scyther's back with enough force to keep her from moving enough to do damage with her blades.

"Thunder!" Redclaw shouted, sounding, if possible, even more furious than Thunder's had been. "What in Ho-oh's name did you do that for!" His voice escalated to an enraged wail as he yelled the final words. Thunder just glared at him, no longer trying to move.

The other pokémon had all begun to gather around Nightshade, who lay motionless on the blood soaked earth.

"She's killed him!" Rosie wailed. "She killed him!"

"Oh no…" Alex whispered, retreating behind a clump of bushes and peering above them with wide eyes as the rest of the pokémon began screaming and talking in a panic.

"He's not…he can't be dead, is he?" Spark cried, looking frantic as he rushed to Nightshade's side.

"I told you she was dangerous!" Blazefang yelled over the frenzied voices of the other pokémon. "I told you!"

"Quit, everyone!" Wildflame shouted, managing to raise her voice above the noise of the others. Not bothering to wait for them to quit down, she bent down to sniff at the still heracross. Nightshade's eye opened and his gaze flicked upward toward her. The houndoom breathed a sigh of relief.

"She killed him!" Rosie was shouting. "He's not moving!"

"Quiet!" Wildflame shouted. "He's not dead! But we have to do something. Does anyone know anything about healing?"

"I might…but we don't have anything my trainer-" Spark began.

"I don't care!" Wildflame snapped. "Just tell us!"

Snowcrystal stayed standing where she had been, feeling too overwhelmed by what she had just witnessed to move. Thunder was forgotten by even Redclaw as he and several of the other pokémon ran to collect moss and other plants to try and stop the bleeding. She looked at Nightshade, not even sure if he was still conscious.

"I knew something like this would happen!" Blazefang growled as dropped a wad of moss by the others. He seemed to be the only one still focused on Thunder. "There was something wrong with that scyther, couldn't you all tell! I told you she wasn't right in the head! You couldn't have all been oblivious to that. And now what do we do? We can't let her follow us anymore!"

Snowcrystal glanced at Rosie, who looked as though she felt the same way Blazefang did. Snowcrystal had to admit that she agreed, but she didn't want to send Thunder away; she hoped the scyther would leave on her own. But at the moment, Thunder was simply standing there, staring at Nightshade and the others with an almost numb expression, no longer seeming like the furious monster she had been a few moments ago.

Any other thoughts about Thunder were interrupted by the worried voices of her friends. Realizing suddenly that she ought to be doing something rather than standing around watching uselessly, Snowcrystal rushed over to them, peering closer at Nightshade. At the moment, she could not tell how injured he was due to the moss the others had put over the wounds. She wasn't sure that moss would do much good, but she didn't feel like it was her place to question Spark and the others who seemed to know what they were doing much more than she did. She looked at Redclaw, who was holding down the moss. "He'll be all right, won't he?" she asked.

The arcanine looked at her with an expression that was calmer than she expected. "I think so," he answered. "He fainted, but I don't think the wounds are fatal." Beside him, Spark nodded slowly in agreement.

Upon hearing this, the other pokémon seemed to calm down a bit, and set off to gather more moss. By now, the worst of Nightshade's wounds didn't seem to be bleeding nearly as much, and as the pokémon gathering moss returned, they realized that they would not need to gather more and stopped, waiting for Nightshade to awaken, some of them pacing around nervously. Snowcrystal reached forward and nudged Nightshade's side, but he did not move. "Stop that!" Redclaw told her. She backed away obediently, realizing with guilt that she still had yet to do anything to help.

"I still can't believe that you pokémon are surprised," Blazefang spoke in a cold voice. "It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. You saw how that creature acted toward everyone, you saw her threaten to attack members of our group …and what did you do? Nothing."

"Shut up!" Rosie spat at him. "This has nothing to do with you! And if you want to blame anyone, blame _her_!" She shot a venomous glance at Thunder.

"Nothing to do with me?" Blazefang scoffed. "That's the sort of thing you kept telling me before. If you'd listened to me, or at least given me a tiny fraction of respect, you'd know that she was a bad pokémon. You even watched her try to kill me!"

Rosie glared back at him but did not answer. Instead, she turned her glare toward Thunder. "What did you try to kill Nightshade for?" she screamed, standing up to full height and raising her nine tails in a fan shape around her, which made her look much bigger and more threatening than she actually was. "He was only trying to _help_ you, you murderer! You want to attack me too? Come on, I've got one bad leg. I should be easy to take down. Come on and try!" Flames flickered out of her mouth as she spat the last words.

Alex rushed over to Rosie, standing at her side and looking warily at Thunder as she spoke. "Rosie! Don't make any more fighting happen! Blazefang is right. That scyther is dangerous."

"Dangerous is right," Wildflame stated, walking up in front of the others. "Thunder…we can't trust you anymore. I think you should leave now."

Thunder looked at Wildflame with the same blank expression she had just given Rosie, but didn't move.

Snowcrystal, who had been watching Rosie and Alex, turned away and walked toward the cliff edge leading to the canyon, feeling that at least for now, the threat of Thunder attacking anyone else had passed. She wished she didn't have to hear any of this, at least not right now. Despite everything Thunder had done, she found it hard to believe that Stormblade and Nightshade had been wrong, that Thunder really was hopeless, a threat that couldn't be controlled, numb to any amount of kindness shown her.

Trying to drown out the sound of the others' shouts at Thunder, Snowcrystal stared down the rock ledge that led along the wall of the canyon. That was where they were going, but somehow the trees and ferns did not look nearly as inviting as they had before Thunder's attack. Right now, it just seemed like another difficult and exhausting road they would have to travel.

Suddenly, a strange movement caught her eye, and her ears pricked up. Something was moving along the rock ridge leading up to the cliff top. Jumping in surprise, she spun around and looked at the others, who seemed too busy talking or arguing to notice. Looking back toward the rocky path, the thing that had been moving emerged from behind a clump of plants, and Snowcrystal felt her blood run cold.

It was a human. But not just any human; a human she had seen before, and hoped never to see again. She recognized the way he looked from the time she and the others had fought that quilava, Volco, in the town they had rescued Thunder from. Only now, she could see as a second figure emerged behind the human, he was a typhlosion. Frantically, she turned back to the others. "Everyone, stop!" she cried. "A human's coming this way…Thunder's master!"

Redclaw looked at her, his expression darkening. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Snowcrystal nodded.

Redclaw stood up and walked over to the cliff edge, taking one look. Immediately he backed up, alarm on his face. "She's right!" he called. "We have to leave now! Come on!"

"What about Nightshade?" Rosie asked. "How will we bring him with us?"

"We…we can't," Redclaw sighed. "We can't risk moving him that far so fast. Alex…see if you can move him-carefully-over behind those bushes. He might be safe and hidden from view there…"

"Might?" Snowcrystal asked.

"Look," Redclaw told her, his voice edged with an odd tone of panic, "that human will come close enough to the top of the cliff to notice us any second now. We don't have time. We have to leave. Right now." He pawed at the ground anxiously, his eyes wide and afraid.

Snowcrystal looked away from him to watch Alex pull Nightshade behind the bushes. The other pokémon had stopped talking, and just looked at Redclaw with stunned expressions. Only Thunder remained emotionless.

"Well, we can't just leave him here!" Wildflame exclaimed with a glance at Nightshade.

"Can't we fight the human?" Spark cried out.

"I…I don't know!" Rosie cried before anyone else could answer. She was staring at the bushes where Nightshade was, but Snowcrystal could tell that she was panicking about the human.

"Come on!" Redclaw cried desperately. "We have to go now-"

An excited cry broke off Redclaw's statement, and all the pokémon froze as a large typhlosion clambered over the edge of the cliff, obviously having noticed them quicker than his trainer and having taken a shortcut up the side of the rocks.

Snowcrystal backed away as the slightly winded typhlosion surveyed them all with one cunning eye, not seeming afraid. Snowcrystal noticed that his other eye was closed, a long scar running across it. The typhlosion was grinning, his single eye looking from Thunder to Snowcrystal herself.

"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgh!" In a split second, Alex had rushed past the others, forming a whirlpool of water around her body as she launched herself at Volco. The aqua jet attack struck the typhlosion in the chest, sending them both flying over the cliff's edge and into space.

Snowcrystal heard the angry (or in Alex's case, simply shocked) cries of both pokémon as they vanished over the edge, and the snapping of branches and twigs as they tumbled down. She heard them come to a halt and was waiting for Alex to reappear when the Typhlosion's trainer appeared on the edge of the path a short ways away and stepped onto the cliff top.

For a moment, both the human and the group of pokémon simply stared at each other in surprise; none of them had expected the human to appear so quickly, and Master certainly hadn't expected to see so many pokémon in such an odd group.

In the split second that followed, several things happened at once. Redclaw took one look at Master and turned and bolted-faster than Snowcrystal expected even he could run-in the opposite direction. Wildflame launched a flamethrower at Master, who ducked down on the rock ledge, using part of the cliff wall for protection and barely avoiding the blast. Volco reappeared at the top of the cliff, looking ready to fight, and Thunder, who up until this point had been standing unmoving, raced toward her two enemies.

Volco readied himself for an attack as Thunder came nearer, yet to his surprise, she rushed right by him, heading straight for Master instead. Alarmed, Volco got ready to shoot a fire attack in her direction, but there was no need. Before Thunder could ever reach Master, the man had stood up so that he could reach over the cliff, pulled out a pokéball and pointed it at her. She dissolved in a beam of red light and vanished inside before her blades ever touched him.

Shocked, Snowcrystal backed even further away from the human. It was then that she realized that Rosie and Wildflame had fled as well. And not only that, but Master was staring right at her.

Someone shoved against her shoulder. "Go on, run!" That was Spark's voice. Snowcrystal caught the jolteon's eye and did as she was told, turning and running after the others. She heard Blazefang mutter something under his breath and sprint after her. As her paws pounded the rough earth, she didn't dare look back, though her fear for the others as well as herself was mounting. It wasn't long before she saw a flash of bright yellow fur and realized that Spark had caught up with her. "Where's Alex?" she asked.

"Behind me!" Spark panted as he ran. "That human had other pokémon with them…you should have seen them! There was no way we were going to…" His voice trailed off and he seemed to be trying to focus his attention on running rather than talking.

Snowcrystal could see Alex running on her other side now, limping slightly but still keeping pace with her and Spark. The human and his pokémon didn't seem to be following them, but the way Master had looked at her was deeply unsettling. Would he follow them now? What would they do? Could Thunder escape again? And what… All of a sudden she remembered that Nightshade was still back there. Alone. Defenseless. And there was nothing any of them could do but hope that Master and his pokémon would leave him alone or not find him at all.

"Wait…" Alex gasped as she began to slow down. "Stop…"

Snowcrystal slowed down, noticing the otter-like pokémon come to a stop. Spark came to a halt as well, looking almost as tired as she was. Snowcrystal stopped too as Spark glanced back to where they had run from. "He's not following us," he stated nervously.

"Not yet," Snowcrystal muttered worriedly. "He…he looked at me strange. I think he wants to catch me and you of all pokémon would know that humans have a fascination with pokémon that are…different…to them."

"Who was that guy?" Alex asked in between pants.

"Thunder's trainer," Spark answered. "'Master.' We don't know his name. I can't imagine what he'd be doing out here…unless he was trying to catch the rare species of pokémon in that canyon. Or us, if we'd have stayed there longer."

"You should have attacked the human while I had the typhlosion distracted," Alex growled. "My old trainer taught me that attacking humans was wrong…but something makes me feel like that guy would have deserved it. You think your heracross friend will be okay?"

"I don't know…" Snowcrystal whispered. "We can't exactly go back there, can we?"

"Not yet." Spark stood up again, casting a worried glance at the now very small looking figures of Master and his pokémon in the distance. "But we'd better find the others. They must have stopped somewhere ahead."

Snowcrystal didn't argue as Spark led them onward.

* * *

The others had stopped further away than Snowcrystal had expected; she imagined that in their weakened and tired state that only sheer terror had driven them on. She wasn't used to seeing the group split up like that out of fear...even Redclaw had run, when he hadn't even thought of doing such a thing while they were on Articuno's mountain. The group was now resting among several large, dry bushes, and when Snowcrystal, Spark and Alex arrived, everyone looked up at them with fearful expressions.

"You're all right!" Rosie gasped in surprise and relief. "Do you know what to do about Nightshade? What are we going to-"

"We'll have to wait." Redclaw's voice had gained its usual calm, but though there was relief in his eyes at the sight of the three arriving pokémon, he seemed reluctant to bring attention to himself and couldn't seem to bring himself to look at them. "There's nothing we can do about Nightshade right now. We'll have to wait until the human leaves."

"What did you just run away for?" Spark growled, causing most of the pokémon to look at him in surprise. "Nightshade's back there, don't you remember? And all you did was run without even trying, leaving the rest of us to face all those…"

Redclaw's furious gaze snapped toward Spark. "Did you see what happened to Thunder?" the arcanine roared, resulting in an even greater look of surprise from everyone around him. "Didn't you see that he still had her pokéball? He may have abandoned me but he must still have the pokéball. I don't care what any of you think of me for running, but I would rather die than be one of his pokémon again." He gave Spark a glare that rivaled any evil look Thunder had given any of them. Spark lowered his gaze and slowly backed away, not replying.

No one spoke up again.

Snowcrystal sat by herself for a long time, listening to the howling winds and then watching the sky grow darker as night settled in, half worried about Nightshade and Thunder, and half worried that Thunder's trainer was coming after them. Though no one taking their duty as lookout saw him anywhere near where they were, it wasn't enough to put her mind at ease. The way he had looked at her, like she was some sort of rare prize to own rather than a living thing still deeply unnerved her.

* * *

In the early night, Snowcrystal took her turn as a lookout for the group, hoping that the task would give her something to focus on rather than the events that had taken place that day. She wanted anything else to think about, and she didn't feel like talking to anybody else. As she gazed out over the land they had just passed through, warily looking for any movement, something caught her eye and made her freeze.

Near the canyon edge, but much closer to them than Snowcrystal thought anyone should have gotten without her noticing, was the shape of a human. Her whole body tensed, and she was about to cry out to the others, when she realized that this human, even if she could only see its outline in the fading light, was very different looking than Thunder's Master. He wasn't quite as tall, and he was thinner, and he was standing, barely visible against the dark rocks, and looking down into the canyon. And there was someone beside him, a pokémon.

She hadn't noticed the pokémon at first; he had been standing in the shadows, but when he moved, Snowcrystal recognized the shape instantly. It was a scizor. _Scytheclaw?_ She wondered. _Is that Scytheclaw?_ She continued to watch the pokémon and human shapes, but they didn't seem to be moving much. She had no idea what Scytheclaw would be doing around a human, but she wasn't about to go closer and find out. She wanted to alert the others, but she kept quiet for now. After all, she didn't want them to panic if there was no real danger; this human was obviously a different one and didn't seem interested or aware of them at all.

Something moved from behind the human and scizor. It was another pokémon, but Snowcrystal couldn't quite tell what species it was. The human turned away from the canyon and stepped toward this second pokémon. Suddenly more worried, Snowcrystal turned to look at the others in her group. Seeing that they already looked tense and worried enough, Snowcrystal wasn't sure she wanted to alert them of the strange human unless it actually did something threatening. She glanced back to where the human was.

It was gone. And so were the pokémon. Blinking in surprise, Snowcrystal studied the canyon edge. There was no way they could have climbed down and out of sight in the second she had taken to glance away; it was as if they had never been there at all. She stared at the spot for quite a while before she finally managed to look away and focus again on watching for Thunder's trainer. There was no sign of the strange human anywhere else either. Reluctantly, she admitted that she must have been imagining things.

* * *

In the middle of the night, Redclaw, Alex, and Spark returned with Nightshade, who, thankfully, had not been injured worse since being left near the human. Spark had not spoken to Redclaw since his outburst, but Alex had convinced him to go along and help. Redclaw had not gone back until Alex and Wildflame, who snuck off back to the area they had left Nightshade at, had confirmed that the human was no longer there, and that his scent had led back into the canyon. Snowcrystal still wasn't convinced that Thunder's trainer wasn't following them, or that he hadn't just gone back into the canyon a while for rest and food for his pokémon. At least they mentioned nothing about any other humans, so the strange human was not around, if it even existed. Seeing Nightshade being carried in carefully on Redclaw's back, she tried not to dwell on her worries for now when there were more pressing matters to think about at the moment.

Redclaw lay down slowly and Alex and Spark carefully pushed Nightshade off his back and onto the ground. The heracross's eyes flickered open for a second and then closed again. Though his wounds were no longer bleeding, they looked deep. Snowcrystal then realized why she hadn't been worried about Thunder much. She couldn't…not after what she'd done.

Rosie hesitantly approached Nightshade's still form. "Nightshade? Can you get up?"

"No," he replied, his eyes opening slowly and his voice sounding much weaker than usual. "Not now. I need to rest." His eyes closed again.

"Leave him alone," Wildflame told Rosie, pushing her away slightly. Rosie didn't protest.

Everyone else just watched in silence until Blazefang spoke. "Well, what are we going to do now? We can't go back in the canyon if that human is lurking about. And now that Nightshade's the new Stormblade, how are we going to get to the human's city anytime soon?"

Snowcrystal glared at Blazefang, angry that he had called Nightshade 'the new Stormblade', but he just shrugged at her.

Surprisingly, it was Nightshade who spoke next. He made no effort to push himself upright, and though Snowcrystal was pretty sure he could if he wanted to, she realized he probably knew that it could make his injuries worse. The heracross's gaze was fixed on Blazefang as he spoke. "My wounds are not as bad as Stormblade's were," he rasped. "I just need a few days…then I'll be able to travel again."

"And by 'travel' you mean ride on Redclaw's back?" said Blazefang.

"If that's what it takes."

"But we don't _have_ a few days!" Blazefang snarled back. "What if that human comes back? How are we ever going to get to that city if-"

"Blazefang," Redclaw began, "there's nothing we can do about that now. After what happened, we all need a rest. We can decide what to do tomorrow, but we won't be leaving in the morning unless we absolutely have to."

Blazefang exchanged a glance with Wildflame, but neither dark type said anything.

"What about Thunder?" Alex asked, voicing the question that Snowcrystal assumed had been on everyone's mind.

"What about her?" Rosie muttered back.

"Aren't we…going to try and get her back?" Alex looked around the group, confused.

No one said anything.

"You mean, you're just going to leave her with that trainer?"

"Why not?" Blazefang muttered. "It's what she deserves. Besides, she wouldn't put her life or freedom on the line for any of us, so why should we do it for her?"

"You _really_ think she deserves to belong to a trainer like that?" Snowcrystal asked, giving Blazefang a seething look. Sure, she was angry at Thunder too…no, more than angry, but certainly that didn't mean she deserved to have her trainer put her through any number of horrible things again? "I know that what Thunder did was horrible, but I don't think anyone deserves that."

"Naive and innocent as always, huh?" Blazefang replied.

"Look, Snowcrystal, Alex…" Wildflame began, "we can't try and bring Thunder back. That human's pokémon are stronger than us, and if they're anything like Thunder, they can handle a lot more damage from attacks too. Not to mention that he has pokéballs, and if any of us fainted or got badly hurt, we could end up like her."

Redclaw nodded in agreement. "I'm sorry…but it's not worth it."

_Not worth it?_ Snowcrystal thought, _after you showed us all how horrible you felt everything about that trainer was? You know more than anyone else how awful that human is!_ Though she wanted to say these things out loud, she didn't.

"Thunder had no reason to attack Nightshade," Redclaw continued as if he could tell what she was thinking. "I hate to say it, but I think her time with Master made her almost as bad as he is."

A sudden memory surfaced in Snowcrystal's mind; a cave floor covered in sticky mud, Thunder rushing in to help Stormblade and then her pulling him to safety… She found it hard to believe that Thunder was as bad a pokémon as some of the others thought she was. She may have done many bad things, but there was good in her somewhere. She glanced over at Rosie; after all, the ninetales had seen Thunder rescue Stormblade as well.

Rosie noticed her looking and looked back, catching her gaze and turning to the others. "Wildflame's right," she said, and Snowcrystal's hopes dropped. "It's too risky, and that human's pokémon are too strong. Thunder may have been part of our group and followed us around, but can any of you really call her your friend? She was mean, rude, vicious, horrible, and as you all just saw today, downright _sadistic_. Sorry to anyone who wanted her back, but she's not worth risking anything for."

Snowcrystal realized that Rosie probably didn't even remember the incident at the cave right now, and if she did, she didn't care. Deep down she knew that Wildflame was right, and that they couldn't risk confronting that human and his pokémon. She didn't want her friends to get hurt. But at the same time, the thought of whatever vague horrors Nightshade and Redclaw had hinted to her about Thunder's past filled her with dread. Thunder had probably been sentenced to a fate worse than death, and none of them could do anything about it.

In the midst of her thoughts she realized that Rosie was still talking. The ninetales' eyes were still cold and angry. "…and as far as I'm concerned," she said calmly, "that trainer can do whatever he wants with her."

Though Snowcrystal wasn't sure if everyone agreed, no one spoke up to argue.

_To be continued..._

_(If you're wondering, the reason Thunder was able to attack Nightshade so much was because she, as a scyther, was much faster than him, and Nightshade was injured (and not used to dealing with injuries) with the element of surprise against him.)_


	48. Separation

___(New chapter! Sorry it's shorter than normal, but I ended up splitting this into two chapters. The next one's longer. XD)_

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 48-Separation**

Morning came far sooner than expected, or at least, that was what Snowcrystal thought as she watched the sun slowly rising over the horizon, the growing light of sunrise doing nothing to brighten the dark thoughts that still filled her mind. There had been no sign of 'Master' all night, but Snowcrystal knew that he could still be lurking in the canyon, closer than any of the others thought, and yet they could not leave, not with Nightshade in such awful condition.

Everyone was edgy, nervous, and fearful, many of them wondering just when Master's super-powered pokémon were going to ambush them. They all felt trapped and helpless, too worried even to hunt, the thought that there had been no sign of Master not exactly comforting.

Alex and Redclaw had tried to get food for Nightshade from some of the nearby trees, but the sap proved too difficult to collect and bring to him. Nightshade was growing weaker. As a pokémon that needed to eat often, he was certainly feeling the effects, made even worse by his injuries.

"It was Thunder…" Blazefang was muttering as Redclaw tried to give Nightshade a piece of bark with a few drops of tree sap on it. The houndour's gaze was focused on the dirt in front of his paws. He was shaking, as though barely managing to suppress a steadily climbing panic. "Thunder did this. If it weren't for her, we'd be out of here by now."

"I think Master is more to blame than her," Alex whispered quietly. Even the floatzel seemed worried and afraid, her usual carefree demeanor completely gone as she nervously smoothed down the fur of one of her tails that she held in her paws.

"If it weren't for _her_…" Blazefang growled in response, "we'd be able to get away from Master."

Snowcrystal was only half listening as the others carried on whispered conversations. She glanced at Wildflame and Redclaw, who were currently keeping watch. The fact that they hadn't spotted anything yet didn't reassure her. As the day wore on, she and the others were only becoming more and more paranoid, acutely aware of just how vulnerable they were. Most of them looked like they wanted to leave anyway, but they were either too worried about Nightshade or too afraid to go off alone to leave the group.

Snowcrystal was crouched beside Nightshade, who was lying completely still. Alex and Blazefang's conversation about Thunder reached her again, and she sighed. Wanting some sort of a distraction, and figuring that Nightshade would want one too, she looked at the heracross. "I don't think you were wrong about Thunder," she whispered. "She was just…well…"

"I don't blame Thunder," Nightshade replied, his voice sounding even weaker than before. "I blame her master for turning her into the pokémon that attacked me."

And it was back to Master, the human that could be lurking anywhere in the canyon or the surrounding area. Why hadn't he found them yet? Had he been distracted by the other pokémon in the canyon? The thought made her cringe. No, she told herself, the canyon pokémon were too well protected. They would be safe. They had to be. She couldn't bring herself to reply to Nightshade; she didn't want to talk about Master or Thunder anymore.

"We shouldn't just be waiting here," Rosie said at once, and Snowcrystal turned to listen, more to look for another distraction than actually wanting to hear what the ninetales was saying. "We have to do something. Maybe we can smell out the human, attack him from behind, and kill him before he has a chance to let out any of his pokémon."

Snowcrystal, as well as most of the others, stared blankly at her. Blazefang was the first to speak. "Well, if you want to volunteer for that, go ahead. Let's see you get past his typhlosion."

"But we could all-"

"Forget it, Rosie," Spark told her. "Those aren't ordinary trainer pokémon. We'd never win if he had a chance to release them. And Volco's a pokémon too. He'd smell us coming. That's…that's just a crazy idea."

"What do you think we should do then?" Rosie hissed at him. "Sit here waiting until he comes and finds us?"

"No," said another voice, and Wildflame turned from where she was surveying the land ahead. "We can't wait here. It's just as dangerous as walking out in the open, and it's getting us nowhere. I think we're going to have to risk moving Nightshade."

The other pokémon exchanged glances with each other, but Rosie just kept staring, an almost manic look in her eyes.

"All right," said a voice. It was Nightshade.

"You…you sure?" Alex asked tentatively. No one else said anything.

"Wildflame is right," the heracross said with what seemed like a great effort. "We can't stay here. I'm willing to take the risk."

There was silence for a moment. "Okay," Blazefang said, standing up. "Let's go. Now."

The rest of the pokémon seemed to reach an unspoken agreement at the houndour's words and got to their feet or paced around restlessly, waiting. Redclaw lay down on his belly beside Nightshade, and Alex helped the heracross climb onto his back. Redclaw stood up carefully, Nightshade clinging on feebly to the arcanine's mane with his claws. For a moment he looked as if he was about to slide off, but he managed to hold on. Redclaw led the way, a small dry bush cracking beneath his paws.

Snowcrystal trotted after him, realizing that the others expressed obvious discomfort at the slow pace they were being forced to walk due to Redclaw and Nightshade. Redclaw seemed to notice this too. He stopped, and a conflicted expression crossed his face before he muttered, "the rest of you go on ahead. I'll follow your scent."

Blazefang, Wildflame, and Rosie broke into a trot and ran on ahead without hesitation, but the others paused. "Go," Redclaw told them. Alex and Spark looked at each other, but to Snowcrystal's surprise, did not argue, and instead nervously followed the others. Redclaw's looked down at Snowcrystal.

"I want to stay," she said stubbornly. "I-"

Redclaw simply nodded. "All right," he agreed, "but if I tell you to run, run."

Snowcrystal nodded wordlessly as she walked at the arcanine's side. Far to their right, the cliff edge of the canyon stretched across the dry ground ominously, and she couldn't help glancing at it often, expecting Master, or that strange human she had seen during the night, to appear out of it at any time. But no one came. She told herself not to worry; the human had probably gone, seeing as they hadn't been attacked yet.

The two walked on in silence; Snowcrystal was wondering when they would reach the beginning of the canyon and the cave entrance they had come out of before, when Redclaw stopped suddenly, his muzzle lifted to the air.

"It's Master," he whispered. "He's close."

Snowcrystal had been so focused on convincing herself that she was being too paranoid that she didn't quite believe the news at first. But it quickly dawned on her that Redclaw wasn't lying. He couldn't be. "Where?" she asked in a panic.

Redclaw's muzzle was pointed toward the canyon a ways behind them. "Run!" he yelled at Snowcrystal without answering her question.

It took Snowcrystal a moment to will her legs to work, and as she did, she also caught the faint scent over the wind. She heard the scramble of paws and saw Redclaw trotting-as fast as he dared-over to a group of rocks away from the canyon. Looking away, she raced across the ground in the direction her friends had gone.

She wasn't sure where Redclaw had gone to, and a group of trees up ahead prevented her from seeing her friends, but when she saw movement to her right, she knew instantly that something was wrong.

Climbing over a pile of rocks near the canyon's edge, not far away from where she was, was Volco. The two fire types' eyes locked together for an instant-both looked equally surprised to see the other-and then Snowcrystal turned and bolted in the opposite direction.

Volco shot after her; she could hear his paws pounding the ground. Even though she was used to running, Volco was much bigger than her, and from the sound of it, he was gaining. _If I can just run long enough for him to tire out…just keep going and find the others…_

A heavy weight cannoned into her from behind, sending her crashing muzzle-first into the dirt. Her paws slipped out from under her and she rolled onto her side, gasping for breath. Volco's claws dug into her filthy white fur as he hauled her closer to him, dragging her along the ground and not seeming affected at all by her struggling.

"A nice surprise," he muttered simply, a gleam of triumph in his single eye.

Snowcrystal tried to turn her head around to bite him, but he only pushed her to the ground harder. She stared up at his face, trying not to focus on the unnerving sight of his scarred, empty eye socket, and thought frantically about what other attacks she knew. Only fire attacks, she thought, which wouldn't do her much good. Still, it was the only thing she could do.

She readied a flame wheel attack, but Volco saw what she was doing and slammed her head roughly into the dirt; the beginnings of the flame wheel flickered out and died. Snowcrystal scanned the area desperately for any sign of help, but neither Redclaw nor the others were anywhere to be seen. She wasn't even sure if any of them knew she was in danger.

Sharp teeth met in her scruff and she was hauled roughly off her feet. Desperate, she fired a whirlwind of flame from her mouth that shot into the sky, but Volco didn't even act like he had noticed. Running at the canyon and not caring if Snowcrystal got jostled against the rocks, he leapt over the cliff and down onto a narrow ledge that ran along its side. Snowcrystal stopped her fire attacks, both because she was too tired and because she did not want to set the canyon pokémon's home on fire. Instead, she flailed wildly, trying to make Volco lose his grip or cause some damage with her claws and teeth. Nothing seemed effective; every time tooth or claw made contact, Volco ran on as if nothing had happened. Snowcrystal couldn't tell where she was, but she knew they were getting further and further away from her friends. She knew her friends would talk about her, and then just like they decided with Thunder they would come to the conclusion that she wasn't worth saving…

Snowcrystal felt like she was going to black out from the pain of being half carried, half dragged across the canyon ledge when Volco came to a stop. He did not release his grip, and Snowcrystal tried to touch her back legs to the ground to lesson the pressure on her neck and shoulders. When she had succeeded with this, she noticed a disturbing scent in the air. _Blood__._ And a lot of it. Her gaze wandered around the area Volco had stopped in, a small clearing surrounded by trees and bushes in the middle of a wide ledge with a rock wall and higher ledges on one side, then she saw it.

Moonlight, the umbreon who had helped them convince Scytheclaw not to fight Cyclone, who had stood up against the scizor at great risk to himself, was lying awkwardly on his side at the other end of the clearing. A pool of blood had formed around him and his red eyes stared wide open in a sightless gaze toward the sky.

Staring in horror, Snowcrystal realized that it wasn't just him. There were other patches of blood in the clearing and nearby, from different pokémon, but there were no other bodies. At one end of the clearing, half-hidden by bushes, was what looked like a tent. That could only mean one thing. Then Snowcrystal understood. Somehow, Master had managed to find and capture some of the canyon pokémon…and Moonlight must have died fighting him.

Some low hanging branches near the tent shook, and Master himself stepped out of it. Snowcrystal wasn't accustomed to seeing humans, but there was something about the way Master looked that she didn't like. She knew enough about him to despise him already, but there was something very threatening about his appearance now that she saw him up close. He did not look like the trainer that had captured Stormblade, or the other humans she had seen in Stonedust City. They had all looked rather vulnerable and out of place outside their human dwellings, but this human did not. He looked as if he had no trouble surviving here, and no fear of the pokémon either. He looked as if he had no reason to be, and he knew it. He seemed bigger and stronger than any of the humans she had seen, and as he stepped closer, she noticed a bloodied bandage around his left arm. It looked like the wound was fresh. She wondered distantly if Moonlight had done it and then pondered whether it was worth risking a fire attack. She couldn't, she realized quickly, while Volco was holding her. If she injured his master, he would probably kill her.

Master seemed to understand this in some way, because he showed no fear as he approached Volco and Snowcrystal. On his way, he paused at Moonlight's body and gave the umbreon a small kick. Snowcrystal saw a gaping red wound in his stomach that looked almost like something Thunder could have done, but the wound wasn't clean enough to have been made by a scythe. Master looked over the umbreon's body, seemed satisfied with something, and walked over to Snowcrystal, stopping just in front of her and Volco.

"Drop her," he told Volco.

Volco's mouth opened and Snowcrystal hit the ground; she tried to remain on her paws but found they wouldn't support her. Master's hand reached out and grabbed a handful of her neck fur. He lifted her up, more painfully than Volco had done, until the two of them were eye to eye. Snowcrystal felt an overwhelming urge to fire a flame wheel in his face and let Volco do whatever he wanted to her, but she knew she couldn't. She couldn't just give up and not try to escape and find her friends; if she did, they would come looking for her and likely meet the same fate, and she would never reach Stonedust City or find out what the legendaries so desperately needed to know about the Forbidden Attacks.

Master slowly moved her so that she was facing away from him; he seemed to want to take a close look at the pale gray stripes on her back. He ran the fingers of his other hand through the white tuft of fur on her head, then turned her to face him again, staring into her eyes with a strange fascination. "You did well, Volco," he said smoothly. "The white growlithe. I thought she might be an albino, but her eyes are blue. She could be something else entirely." His hand moved toward her crystal amulet and he held the crystal itself in his hand, peering at it for a closer look. "Think she belongs to a trainer?" he asked Volco, who tilted his head and gave him a look of feigned innocence. The typhlosion then seemed to lose interest a bit, and went over to sniff hopefully at Moonlight's carcass; Snowcrystal realized that the umbreon's body would probably end up as food for Master's pokémon.

"We'll see," Master began. He now held her at arm's length, still dangling painfully from her scruff. Her eyes kept darting around the bloodied grass of the clearing, wondering what had happened to the other canyon pokémon. When she looked back at Master, he was holding a red and white sphere in his hand. Whatever hopes she had had left plummeted.

He tapped the sphere against her head and suddenly a chilling sensation swept over her. She felt different than she had ever felt in her life; the scenery shimmered before her eyes, confusing her for a second before she was drawn into blackness. However, she could feel, in some way she didn't quite understand, that she was not captured yet. With all her might she fought against the strange energy consuming her, feeling her strength wane even more. But there was no way she was going to give up. She had nothing to loose now, and she couldn't let herself get caught…

Just when she thought she would black out from the effort, light flooded her vision and her body reformed normally on the ground next to Master, the energy she had struggled against releasing her. The pokéball dropped uselessly to the ground. Master bent to pick it up and at the same time grabbed her scruff again, twisting her head so her muzzle was pointed upward at the sky as if he was suddenly worried she would try to use an attack on him, then pulled out another small sphere from his pocket; this one looked different than the one he had used before. Master pushed the small button in the sphere's center and it grew to be the size the previous pokéball had been.

Snowcrystal struggled wildly, and by some stroke of bizarre luck that surprised even her, managed to slip out of Master's grasp. She hit the ground roughly and took off, only to be stopped by Volco as the typhlosion knocked her to the ground. Trapped, she looked in a panic at Master, only to realize that it hadn't been bizarre luck that she'd escaped at all.

Master had been distracted by something moving on a rock ledge on the canyon wall not far above them. But it wasn't one of Snowcrystal's friends. It wasn't even a pokémon.

It was another human.

This human, Snowcrystal realized, was much like the ones she had seen before, a young, not quite full grown human who looked out of place so far from a city. This human, though young, looked taller and older than the one who had captured Stormblade. He was much scrawnier than Volco's trainer, and the fur (or whatever it was) on his head was a darker brown. He was standing with the most surprising nonchalant look on his face, not seeming surprised at all at the scene that lay before him. Snowcrystal wondered if this human had been watching them, and for how long.

"What are you doing here?" Master shouted at him, looking furious. Snowcrystal noticed that he was still holding the differently-colored pokéball. Volco, meanwhile, looked at the newcomer with surprise; Snowcrystal wondered how the human had managed to get this close without the typhlosion noticing him.

The scrawny human did not answer. He simply stared back. Then Snowcrystal realized it; the human she had seen during the night had looked like he did. At least, from what she could tell, he had. He had certainly been tall and thin, that was for sure. The human's gaze wavered around the clearing before focusing once again on Master. "Let those pokémon go," he said, his voice sounding rather quiet compared to Master's booming yell.

Master didn't reply but cast a knowing glance at Volco, who threw back his head and shot a billowing column of flame at the human standing on the cliff. Something moved in a blur in front of the oncoming fire attack, and Snowcrystal saw the human duck down as a pokémon came to a stop in front of him, lifting its arms, in which it held two strange objects, and forming a shimmering, almost transparent barrier in front of the fire. Despite this, Volco kept up the attack, and the pokémon behind the barrier strained harder, while the trainer, flinching from the heat, backed up against the rock wall.

Snowcrystal felt teeth in her scruff again, and looked around in panic, only to see the dark blue and white face of another pokémon before it began hauling her out of Master's line of sight into the trees.

Master's gaze flickered from the pokémon trying to hold back Volco's flamethrower toward her. Fury crossed his face as he hurled the pokéball at her-it missed-and then reached in his pocket again.

A sharp gasp from Volco distracted him; the typhlosion had stopped his flamethrower and the shimmering barrier in front of the pokémon-which Snowcrystal could now see was a yellow and brown bipedal pokémon of some type-vanished. Snowcrystal couldn't see any more, for the pokémon holding her had whirled around and began racing through the trees. She heard a cry of pain from Volco, and a furious shout from Master, but she couldn't tell what was going on. Branches whipped in her face and her back legs hit rocks and tree roots painfully, but the pokémon did not stop. It raced up a steep slope and suddenly they were standing on the ledge the strange human and his pokémon were, but further back, out of range of Volco's attacks.

The pokémon set Snowcrystal down, but she felt too numb to move. From here, at a slightly higher vantage point, she could clearly see Master, his furious gaze locked with the gaze of the trainer standing boldly on the cliff. Both Volco and the trainer's pokémon had stopped attacking. Master gave the other human a nasty grin.

"You want a pokémon battle, boy?" he asked, reaching into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. Snowcrystal saw the glint of something shiny and silver, and she thought he was going to pick up that, but he didn't. Instead, he grabbed several pokéballs and flung them in front of him in the clearing.

Five pokémon at once began to materialize-Snowcrystal only recognized a nidoking and a tyranitar from Spark's descriptions of them; the others she was unfamiliar with-and before they had even finished forming, Master had thrown out several more pokéballs, each with a different pokémon. Snowcrystal didn't know much about trainers, but Spark had told her enough for her to know that they were only supposed to carry six. "Find the growlithe!" he barked at one, which Snowcrystal immediately recognized as a houndoom, but one much bigger and scarred looking than Wildflame. The houndoom took off in the direction Snowcrystal had been taken; she realized it would find them by following their scent trail in a matter of moments.

Looking wildly for an escape, she heard the strange human's footsteps as he retreated, and turned to look at him without thinking. He looked, for the first time, scared. His pokémon had put up another barrier of energy, and some sort of attack slammed against it, creating a deafening noise and knocking both the pokémon and his trainer off their feet. And that had only come from the closest pokémon. The others had started rushing toward the cliff-Snowcrystal saw strange collars around their necks that looked different from the one Thunder had-and at the same time, she heard the houndoom's panting as he neared them from behind…

A sudden change came over the strange human. Looking almost like he was acting in a blind panic, he got up and dived toward Snowcrystal and the pokémon who had been carrying her, who ran forward to meet him. The boy's hand gripped the white mane around the pokémon's neck and his other grabbed the fur on Snowcrystal's shoulder. The still stunned growlithe was still too frozen with fear to think of pulling away. She heard the sounds of pokémon firing attacks and rocks crumbling nearby, and then the first of the strange trainer's pokémon, the one who had put up the barrier, ran up to the human and touched his shoulder.

Instantly Snowcrystal felt an even stranger sensation come over her than the one she had felt being pulled inside the pokéball. Everything vanished before her eyes and she felt almost like she was falling, or being pulled forcefully in another direction, and when everything reappeared in a haze that slowly lifted from her eyes, it looked completely different. They were no longer in the canyon, though from the looks of things, Snowcrystal could tell that they weren't far from it. She couldn't quite recognize the place, however.

Slowly, she stood up, shaking from head to toe. She could feel warmth trickling down her back; she was bleeding from where the pokémon had grabbed her.

"Relax," said a smooth voice, and Snowcrystal turned to see the white and dark blue pokémon, the one who had carried her, looking at her. "You must stay calm. Arien, this Alakazam, you see, used his teleport move, but it can only take us short distances. We still need to move."

Snowcrystal stared back at the pokémon she knew was an absol (she had recognized its species once she had gotten a good look at it and managed to recall its name), then looked at the other pokémon called Arien. He had two long, pointed ears, and clawed feet. Two long clumps of fur like whiskers sprouted from either side of his snout. She didn't think she had ever heard of this species before. Arien gave her an odd look and she turned back to the absol. "Why can't he teleport us a bit further?" she managed to ask.

"Teleporting just one extra pokémon or person, let alone three, takes far too much energy," the absol replied. "Energy he can't afford to lose. Come with us. We have to get away from here. Don't worry," he added to her, "you don't have to worry about being captured." Snowcrystal wasn't sure how on earth he expected her not to worry, but, feeling like she had no choice, she stepped closer to him, looking at the human worriedly.

The trainer got unsteadily to his feet, quickly putting out the small flame on the sleeve of his shirt that must have come from being too close to an attack before they teleported. "Let's go," he told his pokémon, but instead of walking, he unclipped a pokéball from his belt. Snowcrystal flinched and drew back, but when the human threw the pokéball, a pokémon came out of it.

It was a pokémon she had never seen before, but, like absol, had heard about. It was brown and green with a long neck and four massive leaf-like wings fanning out from its back. It had what looked like fruit growing on its neck, which arched high over Snowcrystal's head. She backed away nervously, trying to remember whether this species was dangerous or not.

"I can't go," she told the absol and Arien in a panic, turning away from the large pokémon. "I have to find my friends…"

The absol looked a bit unsure of what to tell her. Arien did not answer either, but instead turned to look at the tall human who looked ready to mount the tropius. A knowing look flashed between them; Snowcrystal was surprised…it was almost like…_understanding_…

Then it clicked. _That pokémon's a psychic type_, Snowcrystal thought. _He's bonded with that human and they can communicate… _It suddenly seemed as if Master and his illegal pokémon were far, far away, much too far to reach her. It almost didn't matter anymore. Here was a human…a human who could, through Arien, communicate with pokémon. This was exactly what she had longed for but hadn't even dared hope for, her link to the humans' knowledge of the Forbidden Attacks.

"Come on," the human said, "we're going to get away…and find your friends."

Snowcrystal looked up at him numbly as he scooped her up in his arms and sat on the tropius's back, returning his other two pokémon to their poké balls. She was no longer focused on whether he was trustworthy or not. He had access to what she needed, and if there was any chance he could help her find the information the legendaries needed, it was worth the risk of being captured.

"Let's go!" the human called, and the tropius's wings beat up and down frantically and it lifted into the air.

Snowcrystal's eyes widened as the ground grew smaller and smaller before her eyes. She whimpered and dug her claws into the human's arm, trying not to look down or at the sky around her. She didn't want to know how high they were. Being up on a high mountain while standing on solid rock was one thing, but being suspended in midair on a pokémon, completely helpless, was something else altogether. She wished she could ask the human just how far he planned to go, but without Arien the alakazam out of his pokéball, there was no way she could communicate with him.

Nevertheless, he seemed to sense her nervousness, and held her more tightly with his right arm, his left resting carefully on the tropius's neck. Snowcrystal's eyes wandered to the tropius's head, which seemed far away on its outstretched neck as it glided, Snowcrystal thought, horribly close to the clouds. "Where are we going?" she called up to him, but the wind blew her words back in her face. The tropius gave no answer; either he hadn't heard, or he was too focused on flying.

Suddenly the tropius's body and wings seemed to shudder a bit, and he turned his neck as if looking at something that had suddenly surprised him from below. The human noticed and leaned as far over as he dared (while keeping Snowcrystal in the same place) and his expression turned to one of surprise. "Go down, go down!" he cried.

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what he was shouting about, but she wasn't about to look down to see. She closed her eyes as they suddenly tilted forward, telling her that the tropius was making his descent. She didn't dare open her eyes until they landed with a slight jolt. Dazed, Snowcrystal looked around, seeing that the canyon was still near them, but she still wasn't sure where she was. Still being held in the trainer's arms, she watched, confused, as he stepped off the tropius's back. Once the tropius's neck had stopped blocking her view, Snowcrystal realized what the trainer had seen.

There were two other humans standing nearby. One of them, she realized with a jolt of shock, was the one who had Stormblade. But any thoughts of Stormblade were pushed to the very back of her mind as the smaller of the two other humans stepped forward, a furious look in his eyes.

The trainer holding Snowcrystal did not seem to notice. "You have to leave," he told him urgently. "There's-"

"Wait," the smaller male trainer interrupted. His eyes were completely locked onto Snowcrystal, so much that she wasn't even sure he had really noticed the trainer holding her. "That growlithe…" he said slowly, seeming like he was trying to sound calm and innocent when he was really angry. "Did you catch it?"

"No," the trainer holding her replied, but there was a panicky edge to his voice, as if he was still thinking of Master back at the canyon. Snowcrystal wished he'd hurry up and tell them; she wanted to leave, and fast.

But the trainer seemed to have no intention of leaving so soon. The smaller human who had looked at her funny walked closer. "Good," he replied, and reached in his pocket for something. Snowcrystal felt a familiar feeling of panic as he took out a poké ball. "Because you have no idea how long I've been searching for it."

_To be continued..._

___(Sorry it ended at such a stupid place. This rest of this chapter was split off into Chapter 49 (which, by the way, is done, I just need to go over it again and will post it in a little while). The chapters I planned turned out a bit longer than expected. And we won't see Thunder again until Chapter 50, either. I know this wasn't a great chapter; the next one should be better.)_


	49. The Agreement

_(Another chapter. This one's pretty long, but I hope it's interesting!_)

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 49-The Agreement**

Snowcrystal tensed as the human holding the poké ball stepped toward her with a fiercely determined look in his eyes. To her relief, the human holding her stepped away from him as he did so. "You can't just…just catch her," he said, seeming to fumble for the words.

"What do you mean?" the human with the poké ball yelled back. "It's a wild pokémon. You're _supposed_ to catch them!"

"Not…this one. And this is not what I wanted to talk about," the trainer holding Snowcrystal said more fiercely. "You have to leave. There's a very bad poacher-"

"He's not a_poacher_ for catching wild pokémon, if that's what you mean," the smaller human snarled.

"_Justin, stop it…_" his companion whispered, sounding worried. "Listen to him. If he's come to warn us, something must be wrong. Let's just get out of here…" Snowcrystal was surprised to hear the name 'Justin', but she couldn't speculate now; there were much more urgent matters to think about at the moment.

"Well what are _you_ doing all the way out here?" Justin shouted, ignoring Katie. "You must be out here to catch pokémon too!"

"No," the trainer holding Snowcrystal replied. "My pokémon and I were exploring."

"What sort of trainer explores places in the middle of nowhere without a pokémon center for no good reason?" Justin yelled.

Snowcrystal looked up at the trainer holding her, who seemed confused as to why Justin hadn't found his answer an acceptable one, and at a loss for what to say. He shrugged. "Me, I guess. I'm not much of a battler. I just like to see new places and see how wild pokémon live-"

"Well you're a freak if you call this fun!" Justin growled.

"You should go back to the city," the taller human told him without answering, once again trying to warn the strange humans about Master. "Do you have a flying pokémon?"

"I'm not going back without that growlithe!" Justin snarled, his gaze still fixed firmly on Snowcrystal.

"I have a flying type," the female human said slowly, acting like she was trying to ignore Justin, "a pidgeot. But he's injured…"

"Then come with me," the tropius' trainer told them, and mounted his pokémon again, still holding Snowcrystal. "We'll be safe in the city."

_The city?_ Snowcrystal thought frantically. There was no way she could go to the city now. She couldn't leave her friends in danger. She started to struggle against the human's grip, but he only gave her a brief worried look before he looked back at Justin and his companion, still holding her firmly. Snowcrystal desperately wished he would let his alakazam out. She couldn't run away; she needed to remind the alakazam that her friends were still out there…

Justin, miraculously, seemed to be distracted from the subject of Snowcrystal for a moment. "How do you know we can trust him?" he yelled at his companion, who had started to walk toward the trainer and his tropius. "I don't believe him…he's using that as an excuse to keep the growlithe himself!" Snowcrystal cringed; just like that, Justin was back to focusing on her again. The trainer holding her fidgeted nervously, as if he hadn't counted on them not trusting him.

"Don't you think that if he wanted to catch it he would have done so already?" the female trainer told him. "He wasn't holding onto it while riding a tropius for the fun of it. And if he wanted to attack us, he would have done _that_ too. And look at the burns on his clothes…it's obvious he's encountered trouble. He can't be lying about it-"

"The growlithe burned him, more like," Justin muttered.

"It's not attacking him now," she pointed out.

"Katie…"

"Come on, he has the growlithe, so let's go back. There's no use in staying here and getting lost around this place without a healthy flying type for ourselves. And if he tries anything…" She looked at the trainer on the tropius and Snowcrystal realized with surprise that she suddenly looked a bit suspicious. "I have pokémon too." Without waiting for a reply from Justin, she climbed on the tropius's back behind its trainer.

Snowcrystal shuddered as she watched Justin, hoping that if he did agree to go with them, he wasn't about to try and capture her in the poké ball while they were in the air.

She was thinking of how to get the attention of the trainer holding her in some way, when a loud roar interrupted her thoughts. The trainer's grip on her loosened; she turned around and peered over his shoulder at the shape of a massive arcanine stalking slowly toward them from a group of rocks. The fur of his mane was standing on end and he looked much more ferocious than usual. His head turned and he spotted Snowcrystal.

With another roar he ran toward the humans, and behind him, a few more shapes emerged from the rocks; Snowcrystal saw the somewhat distant shapes of Alex, Wildflame, and Spark.

The tropius they were currently riding on started to back away, moving so suddenly that he almost dislodged Katie and his own trainer. Both of them threw poké balls ahead of them; Katie's beam of light formed into an azumarill, and Arien the alakazam appeared from the other.

"Katie…what's going on?" Justin cried in a frightened voice, running behind the tropius and staring at the oncoming pokémon fearfully.

"They're making a mistake…" Snowcrystal whispered to herself. "Arien!" she yelled, watching Redclaw get closer and closer to the two defending pokémon, the others not far behind. "Tell them to stop! Tell your trainer to stop!"

But the alakazam was too busy focusing on the oncoming pokémon and forming a protective barrier around himself as he stood in front of the humans to reply. Snowcrystal wasn't sure he had even heard her.

Redclaw was almost upon them now, looking ready to attack the barrier again and again until he got through-Snowcrystal knew that protect only lasted so long-and pokémon, either the trainers' pokémon or Redclaw and the others, or both, were bound to get hurt. She tried to shout out to Redclaw, but her voice was drowned out by another roar before Redclaw fired a blast of flame at the alakazam's barrier. Spark was right behind him, electricity flying off his form as his fur sharpened into pointed spines. He looked ready to attack Azumarill…

Then he stopped. The electricity across his body flickered feebly and then died out. A look of pure disbelief spread across his face as he stood staring-at what, Snowcrystal wasn't sure-then he turned to Redclaw and yelled, "STOP!"

Perhaps it was the surprise of seeing a friend who had come to help him telling him this, but Redclaw did stop. Arien's protect faded away, but he did not attack; instead he merely watched as Alex and Wildflame caught up. They also withheld from attacking, but looked far more nervous than Redclaw.

Snowcrystal wriggled free of the human's grasp and ran to meet them, making sure to stay out of the range of Justin, who still seemed so intent on capturing her, and Wildflame, Alex, and Redclaw, seeming to realize she was not in immediate danger, relaxed.

"Snowcrystal, what's going on?" Wildflame asked. "What are you doing-"

"That's him," Spark whispered, to no one in particular. "That's…my trainer."

"Your WHAT?" Wildflame asked, whirling around to face the jolteon, but Spark wasn't listening; he had already started running toward Justin.

Of course Justin was Spark's trainer. It was Justin, Snowcrystal realized, that Spark had been looking at. She had thought, however, that he had just been some other human named Justin, not actually Spark's former trainer. Snowcrystal turned to watch, slightly worried for her friend, but he passed the two trainer pokémon easily; they simply watched him. Justin stepped out from behind the tropius, looking confused for a moment until the jolteon came closer and recognition dawned on him.

Spark reached Justin and jumped up to greet him so enthusiastically that he completely bowled him over. Justin, however, didn't seem to mind at all; he threw his arms around the jolteon, whose fur had turned back to being silky and smooth, and buried his head in the stiff fur of Spark's mane. Spark was rapidly licking the top of Justin's head-for he couldn't reach his face-and shouted joyfully in between licks. "Justin! Justin! I finally found you!"

Wildflame shot Snowcrystal a surprised look, and Snowcrystal returned it; she had been taken off guard by the sudden turn of events just as much as Wildflame had. The two trainers and the rest of the pokémon looked confused, too.

"Justin?" the trainer called Katie asked. "What…is that…an old pokémon of yours?"

Justin looked up for a moment to nod, and the moment he did so, Spark got up as well and began to run joyous circles around him. "It's Spark…my jolteon." He was smiling; in the short time Snowcrystal had seen this human, he had looked so unhappy. Snowcrystal hadn't seen Justin this happy, and from the looks of Katie, neither had she.

The trainer who had carried Snowcrystal slowly stepped down from his tropius. "Are you going to listen to me now?" he asked.

As he began to talk to Katie, Snowcrystal remembered the alakazam. Moving close to him, she whispered, "Can you help me? I need your trainer's help. Me and my friends need to get to…to Stonedust City. And…" She paused, wondering how on earth she was going to explain her quest to this pokémon so quickly. She took a deep breath. "We need to find out as much as we can…about something called the Forbidden Attacks. They're far too powerful, and some are on the loose, and we've heard that the only pokémon who-"

"I have heard of the Forbidden Attacks," Arien replied. "We know the story. When my trainer and I found the frozen corpse of a torkoal, we thought it might be…one of them."

"So you believe it?" Snowcrystal breathed a sigh of relief, trying to put the thought of the ice Forbidden Attack out of her mind. At least she knew that the pokémon who had that attack was being watched closely and controlled. And Arien and his trainer knew about the attacks, and believed it. That made things easier. It was surprising, but when she thought of it, Arien's trainer did seem like the sort of human to believe in and chase after legends. Perhaps he'd already tried to find proof of the Forbidden Attacks. There was no mistaking it now; they needed this human's help, as they weren't bound to find another like him. "We need to find out who created the Forbidden Attacks. When I met Articuno…I know that's hard to believe, but…but…well, he said that only the ones who created the attacks could destroy or take away…"

She began rapidly explaining to Arien, not sure how much else he was going to believe, when she was interrupted suddenly as Katie cried out and pointed; Blazefang and Rosie were slowly creeping toward the group. Rosie looked terrified, but also seemed determined to see why the others were just standing there near strange humans. As they got closer, Rosie suddenly stopped, letting Blazefang walk on ahead. The houndour didn't look pleased. "What's going on here?" he growled.

"These are my friends," Snowcrystal said hurriedly to the alakazam, in case he perceived them as a threat.

Justin looked up at the two approaching pokémon, giving Blazefang an uneasy glance. Standing up and putting one hand on Spark's head, he glanced at the trainer who had brought Snowcrystal with him. To Snowcrystal's relief, he didn't start yelling at the trainer about catching her again. "The poacher…won't be able to reach us for a while?" he asked. "He's far away, isn't he?" When the trainer nodded and replied, "far enough," Justin just scowled at him. "What is your name?" he asked suddenly, giving the trainer a cold glare.

"Um…Damian," the trainer replied, looking a bit worried, as if he wasn't sure what Justin wanted from him.

"Well, _Damian_," Justin replied, a sneer on his face. "Just what did you want with that growlithe? You must not have wanted it very much, seeing as you just let it go like that. You can't object to me catching it now, can you?" Snowcrystal's eyes widened at these words; she had thought for a moment that she was out of danger.

Beside him, Spark tensed in alarm as Justin walked toward Snowcrystal with the poké ball in his hand. The jolteon grabbed Justin's sleeve in his teeth and tried to pull him back, but Justin hardly noticed. Snowcrystal started to back away as a few of her friends made threatening growls and stepped forward.

"Wait," Damian said, stepping toward Justin. "You can't…"

"Why can't I?" Justin snarled.

"She has a quest."

At this, Snowcrystal looked at the trainer in surprise. Arien must have been conveying him her message after all…

"What do you mean, 'a quest'?" Justin spat back. "It's a pokémon! And I need her."

"You can't take her," Damian replied, speaking more strongly than before, but as he spoke, he was walking toward Snowcrystal. "But if she wants, I can help her find out what she needs to know." He stooped down and reached his hand out to the growlithe.

"WHAT?" Justin yelled. "What are you talking about? You're insane! Do you know how long we've been looking for-"

Katie, however, seemed calmer, though equally perplexed. "What do you mean?" she asked Damian. "…help her find out what she needs to know?"

"She wants to find out about the Forbidden Attacks," he told her.

Justin paused, seeming like he was wracking his brain for something, as if the words sounded familiar, but Katie seemed to know what Damian meant at once. "I've heard about those…well, I don't think anyone's sure they even exist…sure, a few people have supposedly seen one…it could be like how people used to not believe in Ho-oh, but…but why would a growlithe care about Forbidden Attacks?" She looked at Damian like he was crazy, suddenly seeming doubtful of the whole thing.

"Snowcrystal?" Wildflame whispered as she edged closer to the growlithe. "How does that human know what we're searching for?"

"His alakazam," Snowcrystal whispered back. "They have some sort of psychic link…" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blazefang look at Arien with sudden interest.

"If the humans don't believe," Wildflame whispered back to Snowcrystal. "We could always get Blazefang to show them the attack, right?" Blazefang shot her a look of horror, and she hissed, "I was joking!" back at him.

Snowcrystal turned to look at Damian, who was still holding his hand out to her, but she didn't go closer. "The growlithe told my alakazam," the trainer explained to the other two humans. "And he told me…she said that some of the Forbidden Attacks are on the loose, and she needs to find out what pokémon created them, so that they can stop them and stop more pokémon from getting hurt and killed." He said this as if it was the simplest thing in the world and that the two younger humans would have no problem understanding.

"Not to mention," Wildflame muttered as they waited for Justin and Katie's response as they stared at Damian in stunned silence, "Blazefang has one of the attacks himself." Damian's alakazam looked at her then turned to his trainer. A strange expression crossed Damian's face-Snowcrystal was sure that Arien had told him about Blazefang-but he did not say anything aloud.

"You're making this up!" Justin growled at Damian. "I don't care what you do, I'm catching that growlithe!" He stepped forward, but a yellow blur darted in front of him and stopped. Spark, blocking his former trainer's way, looked up at him pleadingly. Snowcrystal could tell that he wished he could speak to Justin in words, to tell him that Damian was right…

"Spark…" Justin said slowly.

Spark refused to budge. He turned his head toward Damian, then back to Justin, giving him the same pleading look.

"He wants you to listen," Katie pointed out quietly, still seeming unsure of everything.

"Look," Damian told Snowcrystal. "Can you tell Arien…everything? I can try to explain to them…maybe they could help." He turned to look at Katie and Justin, who just stared back at him. "We have enough time," he told them as if he thought that would reassure them. "The poacher is far away…we can afford to talk a while…but afterwards, we must head to the city…you can't wander around here without a pokémon who knows fly."

Justin and Katie were quiet at first, then began having a whispered conversation together as Snowcrystal began to talk to the alakazam. The other pokémon, even the ones who were still wary like Rosie, stopped and waited, knowing that this human, if he could be trusted, had much better access to information than they did and could be the help they so desperately needed. As she spoke, Damian told Justin and Katie what she said. Every once in a while, one of Snowcrystal's friends would add something to tell Arien, until Snowcrystal felt that he and Damian would have pretty much the whole story, except for one thing.

She had been avoiding mentioning this, knowing that Blazefang wouldn't like it, but she had to tell Alakazam that Blazefang had used his Forbidden Attack now a total of three times. "You see," she told the psychic pokémon, after she had mentioned that Blazefang had used it in the forest as well as on Articuno's mountain, "Blazefang first used his Forbidden Attack on Stormblade, a scyther we knew. He…he didn't know what it was, but…" She looked at Katie. "I think that trainer still has Stormblade. You can ask your trainer to tell her to let him out…you'll see what it did…"

Alakazam turned to look at Damian, who looked puzzled as he turned to Katie. "Do you have a scyther?" he asked. "An injured one?"

Justin gave Damian a look of pure loathing, and Spark looked up at his trainer, as if confused why. Katie simply looked baffled.

"What?" she replied. "How would you-I mean, that pokémon-know?"

Damian shrugged. "She wanted me to ask you. She told Arien that she knows a scyther who was injured by the…the fire Forbidden Attack. Shadowflare." He stole a quick glance at Blazefang before looking at Katie again. "Can I see the scyther?" he asked.

"No," Katie told him firmly. "I'm not letting him out just to be stared at."

Justin's face was a mixture of relief and annoyance. He rolled his eyes at Katie but didn't try to argue.

Damian didn't seem to mind Katie's answer. "Did he have strange wounds?" he asked her. "Burns that won't heal?"

"Well…" Katie began, sounding distracted, like she was still trying to make sense of everything. "The staff at the pokémon center in Stonedust City said the wounds were unusual…but that doesn't mean much. It probably just meant they didn't get pokémon with these sorts of injuries often…And…and well, of course they haven't healed! It hasn't been that long!"

"Have the wounds shown any sign of improvement? Even a little bit?"

"Well, no…actually, yes…some of the more minor burns and injuries are starting to heal…"

Snowcrystal looked up at Katie hopefully. If Stormblade's condition was improving, even just a little, that made her feel much less worried. She longed to see Stormblade again, but it didn't look like the trainer was going to let him out of the poké ball.

"But not the strange-looking ones?" Damian asked.

To Snowcrystal's surprise, Katie didn't argue. She glanced at Justin, who looked away. "Well…." she began. "No. Also, I once…came across a dead shinx…it had burns that looked like Scyther's…I did think it was kind of odd…"

"And that was in the forest he said that the houndour burned down," Justin said suddenly, looking up at Katie with wide eyes. "Katie, I think they're really telling the truth. They couldn't have just made all this up. It all fits."

At this, Katie simply stared, but Spark leaped up at Justin again, happily trying to lick his face. "Yes! Yes! We _are_ telling the truth!" Snowcrystal heard him say, and although Justin couldn't understand the words, he seemed to understand the meaning.

"We can talk about this more once we reach the city," Damian told them. "If you want, you two can help me search for more information about the Forbidden Attacks. Stonedust City has a huge library. I'm not sure if it will help us, but it's a start."

Katie obviously looked as if the thought of spending time in a library searching for something she didn't even fully believe was very unappealing, but Justin looked almost excited.

"Wait a minute," Blazefang muttered. "How are we supposed to get to the city? It's not like we can all ride on that tropius."

Arien must have overheard, because Damian almost immediately replied, "Well, the quickest and easiest way would be for me to catch you, and release you when we get there."

Each of the wild pokémon exchanged nervous glances, except for Alex, who looked perfectly fine with the idea. Snowcrystal had to admit that she was worried, but as the humans began talking again, she didn't try to speak, for Damian had addressed the pokémon.

"You can stay in the trees near the city," he told them. "The area is safe from poachers now."

"Not many trainers go there," Justin added. "And if they did, there's plenty of places to hide. It's the safest place for a wild pokémon near that city." Snowcrystal noticed that, for the first time since she'd seen him, there was a certain excitement in the human's eyes. He seemed eager to help, to be a part of this…

"Justin," Katie began, "I don't know…"

"Katie, what they're saying makes sense," Justin told her, and from the look on Katie's face, it seemed like she had never heard anything that made _less_ sense. "You saw that shinx! You see that wretched scyther every day! You knew there was something strange about that forest that burned down…these pokémon know why all that happened. It couldn't have been a coincidence that they'd talk about the burned forest or that horrible scyther…they couldn't be making it up; they must have really seen what happened. Look," he added, seeing that she did not seem convinced at all, "I want to help them. I want to help them find out what they need to know. It's about time I was able to do something other than follow you around watching you be a trainer. I'm going to help them."

"But…" Katie seemed torn, as if she didn't know what to believe.

"He believes them!" Justin told her, pointing to Damian.

"Yeah, but he's…" Katie trailed off. She sounded as though she had been about to say 'crazy'.

"Okay," Justin sighed. "Do what you want. Keep training or something. But I'm going to help these pokémon."

"You mean you're not going to catch the growlithe?" Katie asked.

"No," Justin replied bitterly. "Not like they'll let me, anyway." He glanced at the group of wild pokémon around them. Spark licked Justin's hand, as if trying to console him. The human looked down at the Jolteon, then took out the poké ball he'd been carrying around for so long, hoping to catch Snowcrystal with, and gently tapped it against Spark's head. The jolteon stood still for a moment, letting himself be absorbed into the ball. Then, after the red light on the button faded with a 'ping', Justin released the jolteon again.

"Justin," Katie began, "you aren't a registered trainer…you aren't supposed to-"

Justin ignored her, and walked over to Damian's tropius, putting his hand on the neck of the pokémon, who nuzzled his shoulder affectionately with a soft tropius cry, then he looked at Snowcrystal and the other watching pokémon.

"Let a human catch me?" Rosie shouted indignantly before any of the other pokémon could say anything. "No! I won't do it! I don't trust him! I don't trust any humans!"

"Be reasonable," Redclaw growled. "I for one am willing to be caught temporarily if it means helping Snowcrystal and getting further away from Master…"

"I'm willing to be caught if it means getting closer to getting rid of this attack," Blazefang said, stepping forward. He gave Damian a nod, knowing that the human would understand what he meant, and Snowcrystal watched as a poké ball was thrown and Blazefang was absorbed inside it.

"Is he mad?" Rosie shrieked.

"The poké ball will be sent to the pokémon lab by the ranch," Damian explained as he hurriedly picked the poké ball up, but Snowcrystal didn't know what he meant. She thought, however, she saw the poké ball vanish as Damian made to put it in his pocket, but she couldn't be sure she hadn't imagined it. "Don't worry," he added. "As soon as we get to the city, I'll use the computer to switch you for my current team, then I'll release you outside the city."

Snowcrystal still had no idea what he was talking about, but Spark caught her eye and gave her a nod. She relaxed; if Spark was okay with it, it must mean that whatever Damian was doing was safe.

Most of the other pokémon didn't seem so sure.

"I'm NOT letting him catch me!" Rosie yelled. Beside her, Wildflame looked almost as uneasy.

"How can we be sure we can trust him?" Wildflame asked. "He just showed up! We can't know if he's trustworthy"

"He risked his life to save me," Snowcrystal told her. "No humans like Master would do that. Look, I know we're taking a risk," she added, seeing that Wildflame still seemed suspicious, "but this is our best chance of finding out what we need about the Forbidden Attacks. I'm willing to risk it if it means helping Articuno and the other pokémon the Forbidden Attacks could hurt."

Wildflame sighed. "If you're sure…then all right. Not like I've got anything to lose…" she added bitterly.

"I'll let him catch me if it means helping you guys!" Alex stated, looking around to make sure the other pokémon had heard. "I want to help too, like that human wants to help." She looked over at Justin.

Snowcrystal was about to reply to the others in an attempt to convince Rosie when she noticed Redclaw turn around and look back the way he had come. She turned as well, and saw Nightshade peering at them from behind the rocks the others had emerged from, leaning feebly against one of the boulders.

Redclaw turned and ran toward him, and the trainers and their pokémon watched in surprise as the arcanine helped Nightshade limp over toward the rest of the group. Still very weak, he didn't get very far before he had to climb on Redclaw's back again.

Rosie, who was closest to Redclaw (as she was standing farthest back from the humans) looked relieved to see Nightshade there. "Oh, good," she said. "Nightshade's here. Maybe he can talk some sense into you all."

Once he reached the group, Redclaw lay down and allowed Nightshade to slowly crawl back on the ground. The heracross looked at the humans who were still looking at him in surprise, and then at Redclaw. "You found help," he stated simply, his voice still sounding very weak.

"Help!" Rosie hissed. "Nightshade, these are _humans_. You just got here! You don't even know what they-"

"I was watching. Redclaw and the others wouldn't have stayed so close to them for so long if they weren't offering help," Nightshade replied quietly.

"Nightshade," Snowcrystal told him. "These humans…or at least two of them, are going to help us find out about the Forbidden Attacks." To her relief, Nightshade did not seem worried. She wasn't sure how long he'd been watching them, but he seemed perfectly relaxed; she knew that even if he couldn't possibly have heard what was going on from the distance he had been watching from, seeing his friends interact with the humans had been enough to tell him that it was all right.

"Is…that heracross with them?" Katie asked, still sounding confused. Snowcrystal could understand why; an herbivore traveling with meat eaters probably wasn't a common occurrence, even if the human was somehow used to the idea of members of different species journeying together.

The reactions of the pokémon gathered there gave Katie her answer. Rosie, Spark, Alex and Wildflame moved toward Nightshade in a concerned way. Snowcrystal saw Spark turn around and give Justin a hopeful look, but Justin didn't seem like he had any idea what to do with injured pokémon.

Damian walked slowly over to the heracross while reaching for something in his backpack. "Here," he said, holding out a small container of something that looked sort of like tree sap, yet smelled familiar…

It took Snowcrystal a few moments to recognize the scent. It was honey, like the honey they'd found in the combee hive. Nightshade turned toward Damian and began licking the honey gratefully, after pausing to tell him thanks in pokémon language. Rosie glared daggers at Nightshade, muttering something about it probably being poison.

"We have to get this heracross to a pokémon center," Damian said as he turned to Katie. "Are you going to come with us?"

Katie looked over at Justin and the tropius. "Okay…" she stated hesitantly, still not sounding very convinced about what the other two humans were going to try and do. Snowcrystal wouldn't have cared much, but remembering that she had Stormblade made her want this human to come with them.

"Let's go," Redclaw told everyone, but he addressed the alakazam in particular. "You can tell your human that we are ready."

"All right, then," Arien replied, seeming a bit annoyed with the way Redclaw had spoken that like an order, but he did not argue.

"You coming?" Wildflame asked Rosie, who was still staring at them all as if they'd grown extra heads.

"NO!" she shouted fiercely.

"Look," Wildflame sighed (and Snowcrystal thought she saw the houndoom roll her eyes), "these humans aren't like the stupid poachers or Master. One of them could have died saving Snowcrystal. If you don't want to get left behind, I'd suggest you come. Besides, if they try to do anything bad to us, we'll defend you."

Snowcrystal watched the houndoom speak, wishing that Katie had let Stormblade out so that he could at least speak for the two humans who had been traveling together…or Katie, at least, because she knew Stormblade would have nothing good to say about Justin, but there was Spark for that.

"Besides," Wildflame told Rosie with a grin as Damian began rummaging in his backpack for more poké balls, "if Thunder were here, she'd think the humans were bad too, and you wouldn't want to agree with her, would you?"

Snowcrystal winced at the mention of Thunder, but Rosie, although looking torn and frightened, did not argue. "You…you promise you'll stop them…if they…" the ninetales began in a frightened voice that sounded very unlike her own.

"Of course. All of us," Wildflame replied.

Snowcrystal didn't listen to what Rosie's reply was. The mention of Thunder had brought her back to another important matter. "Arien!" she called, running up to the psychic pokémon. "Before we get captured…I need your trainer's help." She paused, wondering if the alakazam would be annoyed that she kept needing him to send messages for her, but he didn't seem to mind, nor had it seemed to be too hard to communicate his thoughts to his trainer. "A friend of ours…" She felt odd saying the word 'friend' when referring to Thunder, and she was sure the other pokémon listening felt it odd too, but she didn't have time to explain. "…got captured by that human who was trying to capture me. Do you think…do you think your human can free her? She's a scyther named Thunder, and…" She broke off, for Damian had looked up from Nightshade and the poké balls he'd found to look at Arien, and she knew that the alakazam was using the psychic link. The look on his face was horrified, and sad… certainly not a look that was hopeful to her.

"Aren't we supposed to be leaving?" Justin called from beside the tropius, looking annoyed that Damian seemed to be taking his time. Obviously he couldn't know that he and the pokémon had been trying to discuss important things.

"Yes…" Damian replied, walking over to Snowcrystal. "I think the pokémon are ready."

"But…" Snowcrystal whispered to herself.

Damian didn't look at her, but he seemed to know what she was thinking. "I'm sorry…" he said, "but we can't help Thunder now. There isn't anything we can do."

Snowcrystal knew he was right, but she couldn't help feeling miserable. Humans were supposed to be able to solve problems easily. They were supposed to be able to stop bad humans. She had suspected that Master was more powerful than even most good humans, but it still managed to surprise her a bit when she really had to think of it as fact.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to have a white growlithe sent back to the lab?" Justin asked suddenly as Damian picked up a poké ball. "I don't think this is something…people should know about…" He acted like he was choosing his words carefully, and he was looking at Damian with an expression that looked almost like jealousy.

"It'll be fine," Damian replied. "My younger brother used to volunteer at a lab. The workers there will be able to tell what species is inside the poké ball, but they won't notice an unusual color unless they let her out. I'll have got back to the city and released her before they have time to let her out. The machine will probably notify them that the heracross is in bad condition…but when I get to Stonedust City, I can still ask for him back and request to put him in the pokémon center there."

"Or what's left of it…" Justin muttered.

"They had to have made some sort of temporary center," Katie replied, speaking for the first time in a while. "There are probably plenty of buildings they could use…"

"See?" Snowcrystal heard Redclaw whisper to Rosie. "They could heal your leg…make it work properly again."

Rosie looked down at her paws. "I don't know…" she whispered. "I'll come with you…but don't let those humans put me in a building when I haven't decided yet."

"All right," Redclaw agreed.

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what he'd be able to do other than talk to Arien about it, but Rosie seemed satisfied.

Seeing the pokémon had all stopped talking and stepped forward, Damian picked up the poké balls and set them down in front of them. Together, each pokémon stepped forward and touched one with their nose and paw. Snowcrystal felt a strange, familiar yet still foreign sensation as she was swept inside, then everything went dark.

* * *

It was hard to tell just how much time had passed when the poké ball opened and Snowcrystal saw light again. It had seemed like a long time, and though being inside the poké ball had seemed strangely peaceful, she hadn't been used to the strange dark void (or at least, that's what it seemed like to her) of the inside, and even though she'd been able to convince herself that everything was all right, the fact that she did not know how to release herself from the orb, as Spark had told her some pokémon could do while in certain kinds of poké balls, unnerved her.

She didn't have much time to think about it though, for around her, she could see most of her friends; to her left, Wildflame's form materialized from the same red mist that had filled her own vision moments before. Rosie, Redclaw, Blazefang, and Alex had already been released, and Spark was standing proudly beside the human called Justin. Near him, was the other human, Katie, who looked as though she had decided to stay around and help, at least for the time being. Though Snowcrystal didn't recognize the area, she figured they must be in one of the tree groves near Stonedust City.

"I'm going to go back and get my pokémon," Damian told the two humans before taking off running through the trees.

"He won't be gone long, will he?" Snowcrystal heard Spark asking. "We need to get into that library!"

"I don't think we will be the ones going into the library," Snowcrystal told him. "The humans will probably go themselves."

"Then who's going to protect us from other humans that might come along here?" Blazefang asked worriedly.

"Ourselves," Redclaw growled. It was obvious that he found it odd, and annoying, that Blazefang was acting so paranoid. "But with any luck, we won't have to. They said this place was safe."

"Sure…" Rosie muttered, still obviously not happy about the whole thing, even though she had now been released; they obviously weren't Damian's anymore if he was able to go back and get six more pokémon; registered trainers were only allowed to carry six.

"Spark," Redclaw asked suddenly. "Did your human release you already?"

Spark shook his head. "No," he told Redclaw. "And he's not going to. I've found my home, and that's wherever Justin is." Redclaw didn't reply, and neither did anyone else, though Snowcrystal could tell that the others had mixed feelings about Spark remaining with a human. However, no one spoke up.

Everyone waited in silence, a few of them casting nervous glances at the two humans, one of which, Katie, was giving equally nervous glances to them. "Where's Nightshade?" Snowcrystal wondered aloud after a while.

Redclaw looked at her and shrugged. "Damian could only bring six of us. Maybe he's going to bring Nightshade back now."

"He's probably at the pokémon center," Spark replied.

"The destroyed one?" Redclaw muttered, but before anyone could reply, a shadow passed over them and Damian's tropius landed in the clearing.

His trainer stepped off his back, looking around at both pokémon and humans. "Well," he began, obviously addressing the pokémon, "you're all free. Before we search, I thought we might get to know each other better."

Most of the pokémon glanced at each other in confusion. Snowcrystal wasn't sure how she and the others would get to know a human without really annoying Arien, which seemed pretty pointless when she thought they should be using the pokémon and trainer connection to convey only important information. But she soon realized that that was not what Damian had meant; for a moment later he had taken out four other poké balls, each of a different color, and flung them in the air in front of him.

Four more pokémon appeared; Snowcrystal recognized Arien and the absol who had helped save her in the canyon. Beside the absol stood a smaller, orange and yellow pokémon with pointed ears that resembled Spark's, and a large ruff of fur around his neck. She knew what this species was; it was a flareon. The pokémon beside him was a smaller yellow pokémon with odd looking structures on his head which Snowcrystal guessed might be his ears, and black stripes as well as a lightning bolt shape on his chest. It took her a moment to think of the name of this species, but it came to her when she remembered hearing about it in a story back on her mountain; it was an elekid.

"Well," Damian told the waiting pokémon and the two humans, "meet Dusk." He nodded to the absol. "Arien." The alakazam stepped forward. "Inferno." The flareon smiled shyly. "Fernwing." The tropius nodded. "And Todd." At the mention of his name, the elekid leaped up excitedly, staring around at the humans and pokémon gathered beneath the trees with a wide grin.

Looking at these pokémon, Snowcrystal didn't feel like introducing herself. She had much more important things on her mind. And first, she was going to ask the question she had been wondering about since she arrived here. "Where's Nightshade?" She hoped one of the five of Damian's pokémon would know, or that Arien would ask his trainer, but she was pretty sure that Damian still had Nightshade. After all, he had only let out five pokémon.

"Nightshade the heracross is in the temporary pokémon center," Damian answered, so soon after she asked her question that she wondered if Arien let Damian know everything he heard from other pokémon. "And yes, I released him. He is wild, but the nurses there are still taking care of him."

Damian's flareon and elekid gave each other confused looks. Snowcrystal heard the flareon whisper, "What's this all about?"

"And Stormblade? He's…the scyther she has." She angled her head toward Katie.

"In the long-term pokémon hospital at the other side of Stonedust City," Damian replied. "She took him there before we came here. And…Katie," he added, looking up at the rather confused trainer. "I think your scyther has a name. It's Stormblade."

Katie simply kept giving him the confused look. Justin, however, looked rather annoyed that he couldn't tell what was going on between the pokémon except for what Damian told them. "Stormblade's a horrible name," he muttered.

"Would you rather I just called him _scyther_?" Katie asked him. Justin said nothing.

Snowcrystal wished she could have seen Stormblade before he'd been taken off to that 'hospital', whatever that was, but it looked like she wasn't going to get to see him after all.

"So…were these pokémon…friends of that scyther?" Katie asked Damian slowly.

"Yes!" all of the wild pokémon in the clearing, except for Blazefang, said at once. Katie didn't need a translator to understand. Luckily, Justin didn't seem to have noticed Spark joining in with the others.

"Well…" Katie began, as if she found it odd to be talking to a group of wild pokémon rather than her own, "he's being taken care of. I know I should have taken him to the long-term hospital first thing when I was at the city before…I mean, the Pokémon Center was closer…I thought they'd move him there eventually…" She stopped, realizing the pokémon were just staring at her, understanding that they, (aside from Spark, Snowcrystal guessed) probably didn't have a clue what she was talking about.

"Who are these pokémon?" Inferno the flareon said quietly.

"Sorry," Redclaw told him. "We'll have to explain to you soon. I am Redclaw, and these are my friends." As he began introducing them as quickly as he could, Damian's pokémon watched silently, some of them still seeming confused. Katie quietly let out a few of her pokémon, her azumarill and the aipom Snowcrystal recognized as Sid, who sat and listened with wide eyes, clearly in awe of all the strange pokémon around them. Damian watched calmly, seeming satisfied that the pokémon were getting to know each other. Justin simply looked annoyed.

"Aren't we going to the library?" he said loudly, fixing Damian with an accusing stare. "We're wasting time."

"I don't think we should until tomorrow," Damian replied. Before Justin could argue, he explained, "it's already evening. The library will be closing soon. I think we should spend tonight planning how we could most efficiently search the library, and talking to the pokémon too. There could be ways they could help."

Justin didn't argue, but he still looked annoyed. "So…are these pokémon going to explain to you and your alakazam exactly what we need to be doing?"

"Yes…" Damian replied, looking over the group. "They can tell us anything else we need to know, and I'll tell the rest of you _everything_." He paused to look at Blazefang, who crouched down and averted his gaze. "But first," Damian said, just as Justin was looking eager to learn more from the pokémon, "I think my newest pokémon needs to understand this as well." He took out another poké ball, which looked like the one Katie had caught Stormblade with.

"A luxury ball?" Spark blurted out. "No fair!"

"Shh!" Rosie hissed. "You're the one who wanted to be caught! Quit complaining!"

"Why didn't you just let that one out in the first place?" Justin growled, clearly growing more impatient.

"He doesn't like other pokémon much," Damian replied. "I wasn't sure how he'd react. But…" He shrugged carelessly. "I'm sure it'll be all right." Katie and Justin exchanged uneasy looks as Damian threw the poké ball in the air.

The pokémon that appeared brought Snowcrystal back to the previous night where she had seen the silhouette of a human and two pokémon near the canyon. She had been, unfortunately, right about two things that night. One, that one of the pokémon had been a scizor, and two, that that scizor was Scytheclaw.

"You!" Redclaw snarled as the scizor finished forming.

When Scytheclaw first appeared, he seemed almost calm, certainly not angry like she had always seen him before. She noticed that he had bandages around his waist and on other parts of his body, and she realized that Damian must have helped him. But _why_? Scytheclaw's calm expression instantly changed to one of fury as he realized who he was standing in front of. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he shouted, in a voice that sounded as though he wanted to tear all the wild pokémon to shreds. Justin looked startled, even afraid, and he visibly flinched as the scizor cried out. Katie glanced at him anxiously.

"I could ask you the same question," Redclaw replied, mimicking Scytheclaw's exact words from the time they had encountered the scizor after coming down from the mountain. Snowcrystal noticed that all of her friends had assumed a battle stance.

"Tell me," Wildflame asked, grinning slyly. Snowcrystal gave her an odd look, wondering why she sounded like she was taunting. Did Wildflame really feel like it would be wise to start a fight? "How did you feel being kicked out of your home?" the houndoom continued, "Didn't feel as good as kicking other pokémon out yourself, did it?" She opened her mouth, and Snowcrystal could see the red hot glow of a small, but still red hot fire attack about to be launched.

Scytheclaw's eyes locked on her, and he lunged. As quick as he could, Damian reached for the poké ball and returned him. The flames that had been forming in Wildflame's mouth flickered and died.

Once Scytheclaw was gone, Justin turned and glared at Damain. "You're 'sure it will be all right'?" he cried mockingly, but he still looked furious. "That thing could have killed us!"

"Actually," Damian pointed out, though he looked as shocked as everyone else, "he was only going to attack the houndoom, but…I don't understand why he did that. He's such a nice pokémon-"

"It's not _nice_!" Justin yelled, and Spark shouted his agreement. "You can't trust any member of _that_ species." Damian seemed so taken aback by how his scizor reacted that he did not reply. "Come on, Katie," Justin muttered, "let's go into the city and find a trainer's hotel for the night, since we can't stay in a pokémon center…"

"But didn't you want to hear what…" Katie began, looking at the pokémon.

"I can tell you everything they said in the morning…if you want," Damian told her.

"Fine," she muttered, not looking at him. She followed Justin and Spark who had angrily began to walk away through the trees and vanished.

"I knew the new guy had issues," Inferno the flareon whispered, and Snowcrystal knew he was talking about Scytheclaw. Dusk glared at him. "What?" Inferno asked.

* * *

"I can't believe this!" Justin muttered as he and Katie walked through the grass toward the brightening lights of Stonedust City. The sky above them was growing darker, and Justin was glad they were close; it was getting hard to see where he was going. "He has a scizor. What…why…what sort of trainer keeps a pokémon like that? Granted, it's not as bad as scyther, but…"

"Justin, you owned a scyther once, and I do now," Katie pointed out from behind him.

Justin didn't reply. He looked down at his jolteon, who looked up and gave him a worried glance, clearly uneasy about something. Wishing he had a telepathic pokémon like Damian, Justin trudged on, Spark at his side.

"You know," Katie began again, "if we try to walk into a trainer's lodge and they see you have a pokémon, they're going to ask for your license."

"Then we'll find a normal hotel then," Justin muttered.

"I want to check on Scythe-Stormblade, first," Katie replied.

Justin stopped in his tracks. "Oh, please!" he shouted. "Why do you have to do that? We have much more important things to think about now. Like stopping the Forbidden Attacks!" He felt Spark slowly lick his hand, trying to calm him down.

"Justin…we don't even know for sure if that whole thing is true," Katie replied. "Are you sure you want to believe a bunch of…wild pokémon who probably don't know what they're talking about?" She paused as Spark growled at her. "And you can go on alone and wait for me at the hotel if you want, but I'm going to visit Stormblade."

Justin kept walking, feeling like it was useless to argue. He hated the fact that she was still focused on that horrible scyther, the very reason he was going to have to stay in a normal hotel instead of the trainer's lodges. He would have tried to ask the humans at the pokémon hospital to just give up and put the pokémon to sleep if he didn't find the idea of all that suffering to be ironically fitting for that scyther. Trying not to think about the scyther anymore, he gave Katie an annoyed glance out of the corner of his eye. "Well _I_ believe him," he muttered, setting his hand on Spark's head. He walked on ahead, no longer caring whether Katie would be coming with him to the hotel right away or not.

* * *

Snowcrystal and her friends, along with Damian's pokémon, minus Scytheclaw, sat together in the clearing. Damian had set up a tent in the middle of it, which Snowcrystal had found strangely fascinating, but hadn't dared to try to go inside. A couple of fireflies flew lazily around them as they all sat in the dark clearing lit only by a small glowing device Damian had brought, some of them, mainly Snowcrystal, Rosie, and a surprisingly willing Blazefang, told Damian's pokémon everything they thought was important. Rosie even launched into a quick description of some of the things they had encountered on their journey.

"I'd give anything to get rid of Shadowflare…" Blazefang sighed after everyone finished saying everything they could remember about what they had encountered and learned of the Forbidden Attacks.

"Aww, don't worry!" Alex said, patting Blazefang on the back. "We'll help you learn how to get rid of it!" Blazefang glared furiously at her.

"Well, first thing in the morning," Redclaw said, "we _have_ to get into that library."

"The humans do, anyway," Dusk told him from where he was lying beneath a tree. "The city's no place for wild pokémon."

"We want to help too!" Alex protested.

"I didn't mean you couldn't," Dusk replied. "It's just that the humans can search the library for relevant books much faster and more efficiently than a pokémon can. I'm assuming none of you read human." He smirked. "If you really wanted to, I'm sure one of the smaller pokémon could go, but I'd be careful if I were you, growlithe."

"Snowcrystal," she stated.

"Right." Dusk smiled again and then lay down, closing his eyes.

Most of the other pokémon were settling down for the night; even Wildflame and Blazefang were getting ready for sleep. Though nocturnal, the journey had taken so much of a toll on them that they didn't think much of sleeping at odd times. Snowcrystal stood up and was about to walk over to Redclaw and Alex when she noticed Damian wandering off. Curious, she turned and followed him. She hadn't followed him far from the clearing when he turned and noticed her.

"Don't worry," he told her, "I'm not leaving. I'm just letting Scytheclaw out…away from you pokémon, I mean. He likes sleeping outside. It's okay, he won't bother you. Go back and rest with the others."

Snowcrystal turned and headed back toward the others. She was almost upon the clearing when she stopped in her tracks. A sudden thought had come to her. She had been too overwhelmed by everything to think about it before…

Running into the clearing, she found a spot to herself beneath a small tree, waiting for Damian to return. Redclaw looked over at her, concerned, but she didn't want to explain why she was sleeping alone. She waited for what seemed a long while until she saw Damian stroll back into the clearing and climb into the tent; his shiny device turned off. After that moment, she stood up and began strolling away.

"Snowcrystal, where are you going?" Redclaw whispered.

"Uh…just for a walk," Snowcrystal replied. He didn't say anything, and she crossed the clearing and went through the trees. Once in the darkness of night without any pokémon surrounding her and with nothing but the light of the moon and her crystal to see by, Snowcrystal suddenly became worried, remembering the last time she had tried to do something like this. "I have to do it…" she whispered to herself. "For Stormblade."

She came to a spot on the ground where she could smell Scytheclaw's scent; Damian had released him here. She kept walking, noticing the scent growing stronger as she moved through a grove of trees, then she suddenly emerged in a clearing.

"What is it this time?" a nasty voice hissed back to her. Scytheclaw was standing on the other side of the clearing, gazing at the sky.

Snowcrystal hesitated, then walked forward. "I have to ask you something."

The scizor turned around and fixed the tiny growlithe with a piercing stare. "Didn't you ask already? I only know as much as you know, or as much as you told Damian," he growled. "He just told me what you all said."

"We told him everything we know," Snowcrystal replied. "But that's not what I wanted to talk about it. You see, my friend, the scyther that was with us when…when we came to the canyon…he's hurt bad and he can't heal. Damian probably told you about him. I was thinking…that…you could…"

Scytheclaw's face betrayed no emotion, but he lowered himself down to her level and stared into her eyes. She felt even more unnerved now. "And what," the scizor hissed, "makes you think I'd do that?"

"You're the only one who can!" Snowcrystal replied, trying to feel brave. "You know he's been hurt by Blazefang's Forbidden Attack now, right? Spark says they don't heal, and it certainly hasn't been healing. Stormblade has nothing to do with what you have against Redclaw or Nightshade…or me…surely you wouldn't…let an innocent pokémon suffer…" She wasn't sure how he would react.

"You don't seem to care that the healing power, or Forbidden Attack, or whatever it is, hurts _me_," Scytheclaw growled. "Why should I care about the pain of your friend when you clearly don't care about mine?"

"But-"

Scytheclaw's expression turned furious again. "_He_ gets to stay a scyther!" he yelled. "He should be grateful for that! I'm not going anywhere near a _scyther_," he spat bitterly, and it was clear to Snowcrystal that he did not want to be reminded of what he once was…what he lost. Scytheclaw had to have some major issue with evolution, or maybe he just really missed his scyther form. She had remembered him saying to Nightshade, during their battle, that he had been forced to evolve. She knew that some pokémon never wanted to; Scytheclaw had been one of them, one that had to have been particularly horrified with the idea, if it had affected him so much. But that was no reason to refuse to help…

"Look," Snowcrystal told him, "if there's anything I can do that will convince you to help him, I'll do it."

"There isn't," Scytheclaw snarled. "Get out of here."

"But there must be something I can-"

"What would I want from a filthy, fleabitten freak like you?" Scytheclaw yelled. "I don't want your help, and you certainly won't be getting any from me. Now leave, or else I'll have to explain to Damian why there are growlithe entrails all over this clearing in the morning."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure he really meant the threat, but she wasn't going to find out. She turned and left, feeling depressed and hopeless. How could she ever convince Scytheclaw to help Stormblade? Maybe she couldn't, she thought, but maybe…someone else could. Scytheclaw seemed to have a certain respect for Damian… That was it!

Breaking into a run again, she reached the clearing in no time. Looking around at the pokémon, she spotted Arien still awake. Walking up to him, she prodded his arm with a paw. "Arien," she whispered. "I need your help."

"What is it?" the pokémon asked, turning toward her.

"It's about Scytheclaw," she told him. "You know how I was talking about what he said…how he had that weird healing power?" She watched as the alakazam nodded. "Well, I think that could be the answer to curing Stormblade's injuries. If anything can, I'm sure Scytheclaw's power could." She waited to see what he would say, and for one frantic moment she felt a rush of panic, wondering if Scytheclaw had been lying and there was no power at all…

"I've seen Scytheclaw use this power," Arien replied, immediately putting her fears to rest. "He used it on Damian after he found the scizor injured and helped him. Damian had a minor injury from a wild pokémon, and although Scytheclaw managed to heal it, I could tell it caused him a considerable amount of pain."

Snowcrystal stared. She couldn't imagine Scytheclaw repaying anyone for helping him. She was also growing to doubt that the power was a Forbidden Attack at all, and she could tell that Arien felt the same way.

"Damian saved him, you know," Arien continued.

"What?" Snowcrystal replied, shocked, but then remembered that Damian had to have no idea about what Scytheclaw had done in the past; he had probably just wanted to help an injured pokémon. "Oh…yes, but…well, Scytheclaw doesn't seem like the kind of pokémon to be helpful. I mean…he's ruthless, cruel, even. He…he tried to kill Nightshade before, in a battle."

To her surprise, Arien didn't seem angry that she had said such a thing about his teammate. He remained completely calm. "A horrible leader, I suppose," he began. "Yes, Scytheclaw told Damian that he was once the leader of a group of pokémon, though not a good one, from what I can tell." That, Snowcrystal thought, was an understatement. Scytheclaw had been the worst leader she had ever heard of. "But believe me when I say that unless provoked, Scytheclaw will not harm any of you anymore."

"What do you mean? We can't really trust him to just…you know, sit there and do nothing, especially when Nightshade comes back…"

"He won't harm Nightshade either," the alakazam replied. "Hate him, perhaps, but not harm him. He only tried to attack Wildflame because she threatened him."

"How do you know he won't attack Nightshade…or anyone else?" Snowcrystal asked. "How can you be sure?"

"You're going to have to trust me on this," Arien said calmly. "I know it's hard to believe, if you have been harmed by Scytheclaw in the past, but trust me when I say that you will not get any trouble from him if you leave him alone."

Snowcrystal wasn't sure why, but somehow, she believed him. After all, Scytheclaw hadn't wanted to fight them when they had met him in the wild; he had been beaten and alone, far from the pokémon he was used to ruling. "Okay…" she said softly. "But there's something else…I talked to him tonight, and he said he wouldn't try to heal Stormblade…"

"You were asking a lot of him," Arien replied. "Healing injuries like what you said Stormblade has would take a lot of energy, perhaps even be more painful."

"So what?" Snowcrystal growled, forgetting for a moment to be silent. "Stormblade's in pain all the time, and he doesn't even deserve it! Scytheclaw's his only hope!"

"I'm not saying Scytheclaw made the better choice," Arien replied calmly, "only explaining why he told you 'no'. And seeing how hostile you and you friends seem toward him, that probably influenced his decision too."

"I wasn't being hostile…" Snowcrystal said softly. "Being nice sure didn't make a difference. Do you think…" She paused. "Do you think you can speak to Damian? If Scytheclaw has respect for him, and he's Damian's pokémon, Damian can make him do it."

"Maybe," Arien replied, "but I won't tell him."

"Why?" Snowcrystal whispered, but she really wanted to shout it out loud.

"Because I know Damian won't," the psychic pokémon told her. "Damian never makes his pokémon do anything they don't want to do, and I'm not sure any good would come out of him trying to force Scytheclaw anyway. I'm afraid this decision is Scytheclaw's alone. No one can physically force him to use his power."

"Then it's hopeless then," Snowcrystal muttered, and without waiting for a reply, she walked back to her tree and lay down. She saw the alakazam giving her one last look before she turned and faced the other way. There didn't seem to be anything she could do, no way to force or trick Scytheclaw into helping her. She started to wonder if there was any real hope for Stormblade to heal at all.

_To be continued..._

_(Next one will take longer; I only posted this one so soon because I had it finished before I posted Chapter 48.)_


	50. Revisiting

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 50-Revisiting**

The following morning, Damian told Justin, Katie, and their pokémon everything that they had missed the previous night. Snowcrystal hadn't been happy to see Justin return, but she was glad to see Spark, who, despite the drama of the previous day, seemed happier than she'd seen him in a long time. Ever since he had reunited with Justin, the jolteon hadn't left the human's side.

Everyone seemed relieved that Damian had been right; no trainers had ventured this way, but it was near enough to the city that the humans didn't have much trouble going back and forth between the buildings and the pokémon resting place. All of Damian's pokémon, minus Scytheclaw, were out of their poké balls; Snowcrystal noticed that they all looked intensely interested whenever someone mentioned the Forbidden Attacks.

Now, Snowcrystal realized, they were going to be discussing how they were going to search the library. Snowcrystal couldn't help feeling a bit frustrated that she would be sitting out here with most of the other pokémon, unable to help. Sure enough, a little while later, Damian, Justin, and Katie had all decided to go together, taking only their own pokémon.

"It's not fair," Alex muttered. "I could help. I'm sure I could help!"

"Can you read?" Blazefang replied sarcastically.

"No," Alex replied, "but I could help them look for book covers that had attack stuff on them…"

"I just wish we didn't have to stay here," Snowcrystal sighed. She stayed silent for a moment, watching the dancing light patterns that filtered down to the ground through the tree over her head, then sat bolt upright, a thought coming to her. "Do you think we could ask the humans to visit Nightshade or…or Stormblade?"

"You mean walk right into a city full of humans, with no trainer?" Blazefang replied, looking at her like she was crazy.

Before she could answer, Alex leaped up in excitement. "Yes!" she cried. "That's exactly what I want to do!"

"Well…" Snowcrystal began. Now that she thought about it, Blazefang was right. Even with the protection of the humans and their pokémon, it would be very risky to just walk right into the city. She began to wish that she hadn't spoken her sudden thought aloud.

Before she could try and get her to reconsider, Alex had run over to Arien and began pleading with him to ask Damian to persuade the other trainers to let them go. Reluctantly, Arien nodded, leading Alex to cry out in delight.

"That heracross I brought to the pokémon center…" Snowcrystal heard Damian say suddenly to the other two humans after a few moments. "He was friends with these pokémon. I think we should take them to see him. The scyther, too."

"Huh?" Katie replied, still regarding Damian and his pokémon with the same uncertain look she had shown before.

"We don't have time for that," Justin muttered. "We have work to do."

"Actually," Katie said louder, before Damian could say anything, "I think it's a great idea." From the look of surprise on Justin's face, Snowcrystal was certain he hadn't been expecting that, though whether Katie was simply disagreeing with him on purpose or wanted a distraction from having to make a certain decision about the Forbidden Attacks, she didn't know.

"You're going to walk through the city with several wild pokémon who obviously aren't yours?" Justin scoffed.

"If the three of us go," Damian suggested, "and keep our pokémon in their poké balls, people will just assume the group of pokémon belong to us. They won't be trying to catch them or anything. Of course, we have to be careful about Snowcrystal…" He thought for a moment, and then went over to his backpack which lay beside the tent and emptied all of its supplies onto the ground. "Maybe she can ride in here," he said. "It looks big enough."

_And cramped…_ Snowcrystal thought to herself, but she didn't try to argue.

"We can go visit the pokémon and then head straight for the library," Damian stated. "They might even let the pokémon in there, so if we find anything, we can tell them right then." He looked over his pokémon, his gaze resting on Todd the elekid and Inferno the flareon. "I want you two to stay here," he told them. "Watch the camp for me."

Todd immediately threw up his arm in a salute, but Inferno looked disappointed. "I want to go too…" Snowcrystal heard him whisper.

Either Arien was sending Damian a translation or the trainer had guessed what his flareon was thinking, because he replied, "I'm sorry, but if you came, you'd have to stay in your poké ball anyway. Only the wild pokémon can stay out, I'm afraid. But don't worry; you can come next time." Looking slightly happier, Inferno nodded.

"Er…I'm going to head off to the library and wait for you there," Justin muttered. "I'm not interested in visiting any sick bug types." Snowcrystal glared at him; she knew from what Stormblade had told her that he was terrified of scythers, and didn't want to go to see Nightshade in case the others dragged him along to the long term pokémon hospital too.

"Fine by me," Katie muttered. "Uh…Damian? Are you sure these pokémon will behave?"

"They will," Damian replied with absolute certainty. The doubtful look on Katie's face told Snowcrystal she was still remembering the Scytheclaw incident.

"They better," Katie sighed, "unless they want to be taken away by the police." She sighed. "Well, if we're going to take them, let's hurry and go."

Snowcrystal was placed carefully into the backpack, which wasn't as uncomfortable as she'd thought it would be, but there was still very little space. Damian left part of the top of the backpack open so she could peer out of it.

She was very grateful that Damian and Katie seemed to want to take an early morning walk to the city rather than ride on Damian's tropius. It was probably because of the pokémon following them, she realized, and was grateful that they were coming. Redclaw seemed happier than Snowcrystal had seen him lately; he would often run on ahead, then double back to circle the trainers. She didn't blame him; they were just finally starting to gain real hope of finding the answers they needed, and they were, compared to what they'd just been through, safe. Alex plodded happily along behind them along with Wildflame and a rather reluctant Rosie and Blazefang.

Blazefang had merely come along because he hadn't wanted to stay back at the camp with two pokémon who were practically strangers, and Rosie had finally been persuaded both by the desire to see her friends and the assurance that Damian wouldn't let any other humans near her.

The walk to the city was surprisingly pleasant; there were almost no signs that this area had once been ravaged by poachers. Bird pokémon fluttered from tree to tree and small pokémon scurried through the undergrowth just out of sight. A pleasant breeze picked up, ruffling Snowcrystal's white tuft of fur as she peered further out of the backpack.

Upon reaching Stonedust City, the mood of the pokémon changed. Each of them, even the confident ones, were eying the strange buildings warily. "Now remember," Damian told them, "don't stop, don't run on ahead. Just follow Katie and I. Don't wander into the street, don't bother other humans or pokémon, and don't eat anything out of the garbage."

The trainers and pokémon started to head into the city's outskirts; Snowcrystal immediately pulled her head back into Damian's backpack. As they walked further and further through the unnatural forest of tall, metallic buildings, Snowcrystal watched through the opening in the backpack, remembering the time she and Wildflame had snuck through the city's streets. It had been raining then, and the place had seemed terrifying. While the city was still intimidating, at least now she had protection, and it helped that the skies were clear. There were other humans around, from what she could see, and pokémon too. Though she saw a few people give Damian and Katie strange looks, most of them didn't seem to find anything too odd about the number of pokémon following them.

Suddenly Damian stopped. "Taking your pokémon out for a walk?" a human voice Snowcrystal did not recognize asked. "Seems like an odd place to do it."

"They like to walk places with us," Damian replied cheerfully. Snowcrystal tried to peer further out of the backpack but only saw Damian's hand as he shoved her back down.

"It's so noisy around here!" she heard Rosie complain as Damian and the other human were talking. "How far is this pokémon center place anyway?"

Snowcrystal wished Arien was around to ask Damian that very thing, but he was inside his poké ball, and Snowcrystal knew that the trainers probably didn't want more than five (excluding Snowcrystal) pokémon following them at once.

Damian had stopped talking with the human; they were moving again. Snowcrystal peered upward at the towering buildings around them. She didn't know what part of the city they were in, but these buildings were bigger than the ones around the library had been. She could hear several strange noises and see some of the large metallic machines Spark had called _cars_ rumble past along the black ground that the trainers were, wisely, not walking on. Luckily for them, there didn't seem to be many humans walking around this early, at least not around the area they were.

When they had passed a few streets, each, to Snowcrystal, more overwhelming than the last, Snowcrystal heard footsteps-human footsteps-behind her and turned her body around inside the backpack to look. A young human child was running toward Katie, Damian, and the pokémon with an excited look on its face. "Ninetales!" she shouted, reaching out her arms. "Mommy, he has a ninetales!"

Snowcrystal saw Rosie freeze as if someone had paralyzed her. The small human was coming closer, and Rosie looked too panicked to do anything, and Snowcrystal couldn't tell which, if any, of the humans were this little one's parents. Damian seemed to notice too, because he stopped and turned, and Snowcrystal got a glimpse of a sudden change coming over Rosie before she was turned around and her view blocked. Rosie then let out a battle cry that made Snowcrystal's blood run cold. They couldn't attack the humans! Before she could think to say anything, Damian had run in front of Rosie, standing between her and the human girl. From what Snowcrystal could now see, Rosie looked like cornered prey; every hair on her body was standing up straight and her mouth was wide open, a glow forming in the back of her throat.

"Rosie," Wildflame hissed. "Quit it!" The other pokémon just watched silently, not looking like they wanted to intervene and risk, as Katie had said, the police taking them away.

But Rosie didn't seem to have any intention of 'quitting it'. She leaned to the side to be able to peer around Damian's leg, her snarling face pointing straight at the small human.

"Careful!" Damian told the human, sounding, Snowcrystal thought, a bit worried himself. "You shouldn't approach strange pokémon like that…I mean, my ninetales…she's not used to, um…" Snowcrystal peered down at Rosie, trying to catch her eye, but Rosie wasn't looking. Instead, she tried to lunge toward the little human, but Damian pushed her back with his leg. Rosie replied by biting it.

"Ahhh!" Damian cried out, but quickly silenced his scream, focusing instead on talking to the girl. "Uh…just run along now…my pokémon…want to be left alone, it seems." He seemed like he was trying to sound cheerful, but he sounded in pain.

Snowcrystal hoped that the little human would decide to wander off before Damian's pants caught on fire, but it didn't seem like she wanted to move. "Damian…" she heard Katie say from somewhere ahead of them. "You said they were going to behave."

Damian took no notice, for another set of footsteps was approaching, the little human's mother or father, Snowcrystal guessed. She quickly realized she was right.

"Abigail, what do you think you're doing?' the sound of an adult human, a female, came toward her. "I've told you, you can't go running off-"

"He has a ninetales!" the little human shouted excitedly.

When the adult human spoke again, her voice didn't sound pleasant. "What do you think you're doing?" she yelled at Damian, loud enough to make Snowcrystal wince. "You can't just let unfriendly pokémon walk outside their poké balls in the middle of the city! If your pokémon is dangerous, I could report you to the police…"

"Sorry!" Damian replied as he finally managed to dislodge Rosie. "It won't happen again. She's not dangerous…just…nervous around strangers. She'd never hurt anyone…I mean…" Snowcrystal wasn't sure how Damian was going to sound convincing after Rosie had just bitten his leg, and the other human seemed to think the same thing, because Damian replied, "she was only playing! I mean, she does that all the time!"

Snowcrystal didn't hear what the human said in reply, but afterwards they started walking away briskly, ignoring the still excited squeals of the little girl. "Rosie," Snowcrystal hissed, "don't do that! You almost got us all in trouble!"

"Well if that human had just stayed away from me-"

"Rosie, please," Wildflame replied. "Try to act like you've seen a human before! If you don't threaten them, they won't harm you, but if you DO threaten them, they probably will." Rosie didn't answer, but didn't try to argue either.

"This was a horrible idea," Katie muttered to Damian. "I don't want to get questioned by the police because 'your' wild pokémon can't keep from trying to attack someone. They'd better behave around the injured pokémon in the center, because I'm not going to help you if the police come to investigate."

"Right…" Damian replied, sounding less sure of himself than before. Snowcrystal wished she could reassure him that Rosie wouldn't act like that again; she didn't want the trainers to turn around and go back without seeing Stormblade and Nightshade.

On the way to their first stop, which Snowcrystal soon learned was where Nightshade was staying, the rest of the journey went uneventfully. A couple times, humans would stop to pet Wildflame or Redclaw, a few of them noticing Redclaw's scars and asking Damian if he had gotten him from a pokémon rescue organization, whatever that was, but Rosie stayed by Damian's side and didn't try to start any more trouble.

"There it is," Damian finally said as they rounded a corner of the sidewalk and came across a new jumble of buildings. Damian was pointing to a tall, wide building in the center of the next street. Snowcrystal peered a little further out of the backpack to get a look. The building looked pretty plain, she thought, being the same dull brown color as several of the other buildings on its street, and with several dark, dreary looking windows. A large cloth had been put up just above the front doors. There were human markings across it and a larger red marking in the center. She thought that the markings must mean 'the pokémon center', to tell humans where the new one was. The cloth fluttered in the wind, revealing some other human markings underneath, which Snowcrystal assumed told what the building used to be used for.

"It doesn't look much like a pokémon center," Alex muttered.

"It's the temporary one," Redclaw whispered back. He did not elaborate on why a temporary center was necessary.

Carefully, they crossed the street over to the other side (it took a while to persuade Rosie that it was safe) and walked along the sidewalk, which was much busier than any they had been on before and it made it difficult for the larger pokémon to maneuver, and reached the building's entrance.

Katie and Damian stepped inside, and Snowcrystal realized instantly that the building's interior was not nearly as bleak as it had looked from the outside. They had entered a large white room that looked spotlessly clean, maybe a bit _too_clean, even, with several chairs around the walls where humans sat. Around many of them were pokémon, some of them sitting patiently by their trainers and others, mainly very young pokémon, occupying themselves with strange looking human made toys that were scattered across one section of the floor.

"Stormblade's not here, is he?" Snowcrystal asked the others. "It's just Nightshade?"

"Yes," Wildflame replied. "Stormblade's in some other building. I just hope it's not far from here. I don't like this city much." That, Snowcrystal could tell, was an understatement.

Damian handed the backpack to Katie, who held it carefully, and approached a human at a counter on the other side of the room, while Snowcrystal looked longingly at the pokémon playing with toys. She almost wished she could join them, but she knew she couldn't leave the backpack until she was safely wherever Nightshade was.

"I'd like to see the heracross I dropped off here before…" Snowcrystal heard Damian say faintly from across the room. "Well, me, my friend, and my pokémon…"

The noise in the room grew loud enough to drown out Damian's words, and Snowcrystal turned towards the pokémon playing with the toys again.

"Oh, come on, Blazefang!" Alex cried happily, nudging the annoyed-looking houndour. "Let's join them!" The floatzel reached out and grabbed a short piece of rope with two knots at the end. "I know this game! You grab one end, I'll grab the other, and we'll pull, and then whoever lets go-"

"Get out of my face," Blazefang hissed between his teeth as Alex dangled the rope in front of his eyes.

"Quiet, everyone," Redclaw whispered. "He's coming back."

Sure enough, Damian was walking back towards them. "This way," he said, and everyone quickly followed him as he walked to the other side of the room where they were led by a nurse through a door and down a hallway.

Reaching an odd looking door that Snowcrystal realized was made out of…not wood, but _metal_, the nurse suddenly stopped. "It would be better if you recalled your pokémon," she told the trainers.

Snowcrystal made sure to keep as hidden in the darkness of the backpack as possible, but she could still see as Katie gave Damian a worried glance.

"Can they stay out?" Katie asked. "They won't be much trouble; they're well trained. They know the heracross…and well…they don't like poké balls too much, and…"

"Fine," the nurse's voice said grudgingly, and Snowcrystal heard a few odd sounds and then they stepped into what she realized must be the metal door. Suddenly she felt a horrifying sensation, like the floor itself was _moving_. She had no clue what kind of room they were in or if something was going horribly wrong, but she had the sense not to move or make any sounds.

Soon the odd motion sensation stopped, and they stepped out into what Snowcrystal realized was another hallway. Katie handed the backpack to Damian again and he put it back on his shoulders; now Snowcrystal could only really see the other side of the hallway as they walked further and further down it. Soon they turned and walked into a smaller room. Snowcrystal couldn't see much of this room, but she wanted to get a better look. Not knowing if it was safe, however, she stayed put.

"Blissey, will you stay here, please?" the voice of the nurse human asked. A pokémon agreed happily, and Snowcrystal heard footsteps again, which faded quickly.

"All right," Damian whispered. "The nurse is gone. There are just pokémon here. But we have to make this quick." He set the backpack down and opened it, and Snowcrystal gladly stepped out.

If any of the helper pokémon working at the center stared at her odd fur color, Snowcrystal didn't notice. She was too busy looking around at the room. This room had an odd smell to it that Snowcrystal didn't like, but like the room where the pokémon and their trainers had been waiting, this room was very clean. It was a long room with a lower ceiling than the first room they had walked into upon entering the building. There were several beds lined up near the opposite wall, most of them occupied by various pokémon. On the beds nearest to her, she saw a beat-up looking raichu with a slightly bloodied bandage on its head, a victreebel with what she was pretty sure were burn injuries, and on the nearest bed, Nightshade.

The pokémon working at the center paid no notice as the visiting pokémon, minus Blazefang, approached Nightshade's bed. Snowcrystal felt herself being lifted up by Damian and placed on the edge of the bed, where she could see him up close. With the humans' bandages all over him now, she couldn't tell how bad his injuries were. However, she could see that there were a_lot_ of bandages. Nightshade's eyes were closed and he wasn't moving.

"Is he asleep?" Snowcrystal asked. Before anyone could answer, Alex reached up and shoved Nightshade-a bit too hard, Snowcrystal thought-and he opened his eyes wearily.

"Alex!" Snowcrystal hissed.

Nightshade blinked a few times as his eyes focused on the pokémon around him. He tried to push himself up off the bed a little, but quickly abandoned the attempt.

"Nightshade…" Snowcrystal began. When the heracross didn't reply, she glanced at the others, who simply looked back at her.

After a moment, Blazefang sighed and turned away. "Hurry it up," he muttered. "We need to get back to looking for a way to stop the Forbidden Attacks."

At Blazefang's words, Nightshade began to speak. "I am glad that you have all found help," he began in a weak voice, making the pokémon surrounding his bed turn their heads toward him. Even Damian and Katie leaned closer, though they wouldn't be able to understand his words. "Listen, Snowcrystal," he began, still sounding dazed but looking steadily into the growlithe's eyes. "I know that Blazefang is right and that we don't have a lot of time to speak to each other. I also know that these humans can help in your search more than any pokémon can. Don't wait for me to recover to keep searching, even if you have to leave the city, and don't spend too much time coming to visit me. You need to do all you can to find a way to help the legendaries."

"I…all right," Snowcrystal replied. She didn't like the idea of possibly having to leave behind the oldest and wisest pokémon in their group, but she knew that Nightshade wouldn't want them to delay for his sake.

"Will it take a long time for you to heal?" Alex asked.

"I believe so," Nightshade sighed. "I'm not sure how long. The nurses and pokémon haven't told me. It may be a long time."

Rosie growled. "If Thunder ever shows her face near one of us again, I'll tear it off!"

"Rosie…" Nightshade said wearily.

"Um, guys, you might want to stop chatting now," Wildflame began, and suddenly Snowcrystal felt Katie snatch her away from the bed and she was shoved rather unceremoniously back into the backpack.

From a small opening she could peer through, she saw a human nurse walk in just before Katie zipped the backpack almost closed and blocked her sight.

* * *

Standing beside Nightshade's bed, Damian turned to face the nurse, trying to act as if nothing unusual had happened, though not doing a very good job of it. The nurse gave him a funny look and walked over to the victreebel's bed.

"We'd better go," Katie said nervously, watching the nurse and the wild pokémon standing around the bed nervously.

"Yeah, you're right…" Damian replied as he looked at Nightshade. "We still have to see Stormblade."

"Right…" Katie replied, giving the wild pokémon another worried glance.

"Well, goodbye," he told the heracross, reaching out to stroke his head. Nightshade looked up at him with what he was sure was a grateful look.

"Her-crroh!" the heracross told him in a weak but calm voice. Damian couldn't understand him without Arien's translation, but he was sure he understood the meaning.

He turned and followed Katie as she moved toward the door, checking to make sure that all the pokémon were following them. "Now remember," she said. "_Behave yourselves…_" Behind Damian, Rosie snorted. Turning away from the room one last time, Damian followed Katie out of the door.

* * *

_This was the forest where the scyther swarm was…the same place she and the others had been to before. Was Master going toward Articuno?_ She hoped he was. She hoped the bird pokémon guarding the mountain would kill him. But it didn't seem like that was going to happen. Master was only interested in the forest and the strong pokémon in it. She was, for the first time since being recaptured, allowed out of her poké ball for more than just a few minutes. Yet there was no escape.

Every time Thunder had been sent out of her poké ball so that Master could treat her wounds, he had ordered his magneton to paralyze her. Now was no different, and with Volco watching her closely and waiting for any excuse to get revenge on her for his lost eye and other past injuries, there was no way she could do anything in her weakened state even if the paralysis wore off early. As she lie on the forest floor, looking up at the leaves of the tree above her, she desperately wished the paralysis could wear off, not so that she could attack Volco, but because she wanted something, even if it was just the tree she was lying next to, to vent her frustration on. Everything had gone wrong. Everything. She had made a mistake in trying to attack Master and lost everything she had to live for.

She thought of the group of pokémon she had followed during her freedom. For just a short, short while when she had first been returned to the poké ball, she had expected them to come looking for her. Yet they hadn't, of course. They hated her more than she hated them. That much had been clear.

She also thought of the moment in which she had attacked Nightshade. She wasn't even sure why she had done it. She had simply reached a breaking point, a point when she couldn't take it anymore-the pain, the hunger, the sickness, the exhaustion, the stress of being around all those pokémon she didn't like, learning that they planned to go near a human city and she had to follow them or starve in the wild, the sheer frustration of everything-and lost control, or simply lost the ability to care. Looking back, however, she wished it had been someone else that she attacked. Not Nightshade.

In the days after heading back from Articuno's mountain, she had tried so hard to figure out why he would ever be so willing to help her that she had started to believe he was only using her for some purpose of his own, but it wasn't until her capture that she really allowed herself to think about it, more so than she had before, and had began to believe that maybe Nightshade wasn't there to manipulate her at all. She had started to believe she had been wrong.

Maybe Nightshade really did just want to help her. Maybe there really were pokémon out there that naive, or stupid, or whatever it was, to invest so much time in caring for another pokémon. She hadn't seen much point in it at first. She often remembered the pokémon she had befriended as a young scyther, only to watch them die at the hands of Master and his training methods. She had long thought that was a lesson taught to her not to rely on others, and that was why she had been so reluctant to tell anything to Stormblade or Nightshade at first. When she'd discovered that she liked talking about her plans to kill Master and Volco and about how horrible they were and how they deserved to die to someone who wouldn't tell her to be quiet about it, she had kept doing it, but she never realized what it meant to her until now, when she had no one.

She remembered Nightshade's insistence that he understood how she felt, or at least a little bit, he had said. She had thought he was crazy or just really stupid. When he'd told her why, she'd told him she didn't feel sorry for him and that he was an idiot. Now, she wondered if maybe he did understand in some way…but how could she ever know? It was too late. She was far away from Nightshade now, and his injuries had seemed very severe. He might not even be alive anymore. Thunder felt a sudden feeling of hopelessness as she realized that she had probably killed her only friend.

She heard Volco calling something to one of Master's other pokémon who was a little ways away. It was something about the forest and the pokémon in it. Thunder didn't know how many of the forest pokémon Master had captured so far, but she knew he wouldn't be pleased if he hadn't capture many. From what she'd heard Volco say, he had tried to capture pokémon in the canyon and did capture some-others he killed-but most of them had gotten away. She knew that the forest pokémon he did capture would mostly likely be used as Redclaw had, not as actual fighting ring pokémon, but pokémon used to train those who would be. Though their job was mainly to be little more than a target that could fight back for Master's stronger pokémon, they didn't have to go through the type of hellish training that she had. They simply had to be strong enough to be able to dodge and fire a few powerful attacks. Some of them got killed during the practice battles, but even that was preferable to what the fighting ring pokémon had to go through…what she was going to have to keep going through. And she still had no idea how Master was going to punish her for running away.

Master was strange for a human, even among the other humans Thunder had seen and heard in the fighting arenas where Master earned much of his money. Most of the others were afraid to go near their pokémon. Most would never even dream of trying to hit them with a whip. But Master did, and he did it for no other reason than because he could, because he could get away with it. He loved to defy the stories humans talked about that told of masters trying to hurt their pokémon only to be killed when the pokémon found a way to turn on them. He loved being in control, and he controlled his pokémon well. The image of a cruel human with a whip was, as Volco had said, the image that came to most humans' minds when they thought about the humans like Master. Volco had said that he was simply living up to it. Why this was important to him, Thunder had never known nor cared to try to understand.

From what she could hear, Master's magneton was hovering near him, no doubt ready to paralyze her again if she showed any sign of movement. It was pointless, she thought, knowing that she couldn't go anywhere. When she had been recaptured and let out of her poké ball for the first time, she had been fitted with a new type of collar that the rest of Master's pokémon now had. Not only would this strange new collar electrocute her with the press of a button on the device that Master had to control them, but it would kill her if she moved too far away from Master, or if she somehow managed to badly damage it. Master also needed to activate a certain button on the device that controlled the collars each day to prevent them from detonating. Even if she could run away, there was no hope of survival. The only time the collars would be taken off was in an actual arena battle, when there was a risk of an unusually powerful attack setting them off, and she couldn't escape the arenas. She had tried many times.

She wasn't sure what she was going to do now. Master and Volco were not alone against her. Some of Master's pokémon…even some of the ones who had been abused as badly as she had, were fiercely loyal to him. Master's pokémon did not work together. There was a hierarchy among them, and each and every pokémon was as vicious as they could be to those below them in the hierarchy. This behavior was highly encouraged and those who cooperated with Master and were vicious toward those ranking lower than them earned more food, more rest, and better sleeping places. Any pokémon stupid enough to try and make friends with another pokémon was punished and quickly abandoned the habit. Those who were the most vicious were awarded higher ranks, and better treatment as well as more power to do as they pleased to the lower ranking pokémon. They could take out their anger on them and get rewarded for it. Those at the top got there by not only being excellent fighters, but by keeping the other pokémon in line. Master's pokémon always sought to move up in rank or get more rewards, or simply keep from losing their rank. It was easier for them to win more rewards and keep from being the victim of the other pokémon's cruelty than to try to fight back against Master and his other loyal pokémon, impossible odds. If one of the pokémon turned on Master, another pokémon looking for a reward would jump at the chance to put them in their place and earn Master's respect. That is, if the attacking pokémon even got far enough with their attempt. Some of the pokémon at the top of the hierarchy were even twisted enough to like Master and agree with his ways. These pokémon saw newcomers as simply new pokémon to break. They never thought of running away, nor did any of Master's fighting ring pokémon, who had been raised by him since they were very small, because they had no idea how to hunt or forage or survive at all in the wild, and running away would lead to them losing everything they had in the hierarchy.

Thunder had never had any place in the hierarchy. She was of the lowest rank in Master's group of stronger pokémon because she refused to play his game. In the past she had often openly defied Master, but after that had been beaten out of her, she obeyed him, but still refused to try to gain a place in the hierarchy. She didn't care about hurting the other pokémon; her hate was for Master alone. She did not want to please him any more than she had to. She had always chosen to forgo rewards and let the other pokémon abuse and insult her rather than do what Master wanted when she didn't absolutely have to. She knew that Master found this endlessly amusing, which infuriated her, but it did not infuriate her as much as his pleasure with having even more control over her would. But she wasn't going to concern herself with how she would escape again. That opportunity was gone. Escape was no longer possible. Maybe, she thought, during the next battle that would be to the death, she would simply let the other pokémon kill her.

As she was thinking this, she heard Master mutter something to himself. She caught the words 'white growlithe' and listened, but couldn't hear much more. If Master was going to go after Snowcrystal, there was nothing she could do, but she hoped he wouldn't find her. She didn't want Master to be happy with having a rare pokémon, and as much as she didn't like Snowcrystal, she didn't want Master to capture her either.

* * *

After they were done resting and Master's other pokémon had been returned, Volco waited eagerly to see what Master would decide to do next. He had managed to capture quite a few forest pokémon, many of them strong ones. The typhlosion wasn't sure whether he was going to stay to find more or if they were going to move on.

"We're heading back to town, Volco," Master stated, answering the fire type's silent question almost immediately.

Volco watched Master return Thunder and the other pokémon and then turn to look back at the forest. Though Volco could smell the scents of many dangerous pokémon that had passed through this area, he knew Master wasn't afraid, and he had no reason to be.

"Come on," Master told him after a moment. The typhlosion got up and followed his trainer and partner as they began walking back toward a forest clearing they had passed through before. From there, they could easily fly back to the town where Master had kept his old training facility. He could no longer use it, now that the police had discovered it, but he needed to retrieve his other pokémon from the trainer he had left them with. If the trainer had any sense, or wanted to live, all the pokémon would be there in the condition Master had left them in. Enough time had passed since the police had come that Master now thought it was safe to sneak back to the abandoned town, retrieve the pokémon, and leave.

Where they would go after that, Volco wasn't sure. The next big fighting ring competition was a few months away. As Volco watched Master release his drifblim-one of the few pokémon he trusted enough to ride on-into the clearing, he thought back to the white growlithe. That strange boy, who couldn't have been older than seventeen or eighteen, had taken her with him. Volco promised himself that if he could find that boy, he would tear him and his pokémon apart until he found the poké ball he was keeping the growlithe in. That boy had disappointed his master. Volco was going to make him pay.

* * *

Compared to the other buildings in Stonedust City, the long-term pokémon hospital the trainers had been talking about looked actually friendly, at least at a first glance. It was a massive white building with many windows and several large outside enclosures surrounding it. Snowcrystal saw a pond with a small waterfall, a rocky area with large boulders, and a place with several tall trees she thought must be there to represent a forest. There were others behind the building that she could not see well, but what she could see with her limited vision from Damian's backpack looked peaceful and serene.

Yet as they got closer, there seemed to be a sense of foreboding and dread about the place that made Snowcrystal shudder. The pokémon in the enclosures were not playing happily, but limping slowly around their small spaces or lying unmoving. Several of them had missing limbs and many had bandages around their legs or heads and moved very slowly as they went for a drink of water from one of the pools or to one of the food bowls set out. Most looked too tired to move much at all. And these, she knew, were the healthier pokémon that were being kept there. The whole place had such a strong air of despairing misery about it that it made Snowcrystal feel depressed just looking at it. She could almost sense the pain and sickness and hopelessness coming from the pokémon unlucky enough to end up here.

As they passed the gate to the steps leading up to the front doors, an absol wobbled toward them on three legs from inside one of the enclosures. It had bandages around its head and looked unsteady, peering at them through glazed eyes. Damian stopped to look at it, but Snowcrystal couldn't see his face. He looked at it for what felt like quite a while before Katie pulled him away and they walked up to the building's front doors, the rest of Snowcrystal's friends following in subdued silence, looking around nervously.

Katie pulled open the door and walked inside, while Damian held it open for the pokémon. "I don't like this place!" Alex said loudly as she shuffled inside, peering around nervously.

"Quiet!" Blazefang growled her.

Katie walked up to the human near the front desk, and Snowcrystal ducked down further into the backpack (or as far as she could in such a small space) as another human walked over.

"Excuse me?" the human said rather rudely.

"Uh…what?" Damian replied, sounding startled.

"If you're going to bring pokémon in here, keep them in their pokéballs! If you want to visit a pokémon here….since I'm sure that's what you're here for, considering that none of these pokémon look like they need to stay here…then you must realize that there are many sick and injured pokémon here and they do _not_ need any illnesses brought in by yours."

"Oh…sorry…I'll just…take them…back outside." Damian hurriedly went back through the doors and the pokémon followed him, looking a bit confused.

"What do we do now?" Wildflame asked.

"I guess Katie will have to go see Stormblade herself," Redclaw muttered, "though Rosie, you might want to think about letting these humans help you with your leg…"

"Are you crazy!" Rosie shouted. "I'm not letting a human lock me up in a place like this! And I don't need to be! I'm not ready to drop down dead like the rest of the pokémon in here!"

At Rosie's words, Snowcrystal felt like she had been stabbed with a claw. Stormblade was one of the pokémon in there, and now that she thought of it, he could very well end up like she was sure some of the pokémon in this building did and would…that he would die in spite of all the help the humans tried to give him. She realized, for the first time, that this could be her last opportunity to see Stormblade at all.

"I have to get in that building," she said in a determined voice, forcing open a large enough hole in the backpack's zipper to stick her head out. "I need to see Stormblade…to tell him what happened." She didn't emphasize further than that.

"You really want to see him, don't you?" Snowcrystal was surprised to hear Damian's voice. She knew he couldn't understand her, but her eagerness was obvious. She stared back at him, hoping he'd somehow understand how much this meant to her.

"I'm going to go back in," he told the other pokémon, zipping the backpack mostly shut again. "Stay out here and wait, and don't cause any trouble or bother the pokémon in the enclosures, all right?"

Redclaw looked back at him and made a happy barking noise, then sat down on his haunches by the rest of the pokémon, who after a moment's hesitation gathered around him.

"We won't be long," Damian replied, "No one should bother you. I'll be right back."

He stepped into the doors again, and Snowcrystal caught a glimpse of her friends, Rosie, Wildflame, and Redclaw in particular, looking through the glass at her and wondered if they had wanted to see Stormblade as much as she had. She realized quickly that they had opted to stay behind and wait, without Damian's protection, so she could have a chance. Even Blazefang looked calm and not at all aggressive as he peered back at her, though he didn't seem like he really understood why this was so important to her.

The glass door which her friends were peering through vanished as Damian walked out of view of it and toward Katie, who was waiting for him uncertainly. "You sure this is a good idea?" she asked as they followed the human now leading them to Stormblade's room. "Leaving the pokémon out there?"

"No one will bother them," he replied. "Plenty of pokémon run errands for their trainers. People will think that they're doing that and waiting for us."

"I think I've already learned that I can't trust you when you say everything's going to be fine, you know," Katie muttered back. Damian didn't reply.

For a moment, things were silent until movement caught Snowcrystal's eye and she peered out to see a young eevee racing down the hall excitedly. The eevee bumped into Damian's leg and came to a halt. Snowcrystal looked down to see the little pokémon staring up at her, or what little he could see of her, with brown eyes.

"Hi!" he said happily, wagging his tail. Snowcrystal could see that he had what was once obviously a very nasty wound on his forehead as well as his shoulder, but they both looked nearly healed now.

Snowcrystal didn't want to reply in case it gave her away. Luckily the eevee was distracted when Damian reached down to pet it. "I like your trainer!" he cried happily, giving a little bounce.

"Jake! What are you doing?" a human voice shouted from the other end of the hallway. A female human about Katie's age, presumably there to help out with some of the simpler tasks for the pokémon, appeared around a corner and ran past the startled nurse and trainers and scooped the eevee up in her arms. "You aren't well _yet_!" she cried. "You need to rest more!"

"I don't want to rest!" the eevee protested, struggling in the human's arms.

Snowcrystal didn't hear what the human said in response, for she was now carrying him back the way she'd come. Snowcrystal wondered if that was her eevee, or just one belonging to another trainer she had decided to help out. It made her feel a bit better about this place, for now she knew that for some pokémon, there was hope for healing. That eevee, apart from a few scars, would be a perfectly normal and happy, healthy pokémon once he was completely well and able to leave. However, she knew that there were many others who weren't going to be so lucky.

They continued walking, not seeing any other humans and pokémon, just rows and rows of doors. "Here we are," the nurse leading them told them, and opened one of the doors. They walked into another hallway, but unlike the one they had just come through, this one was much wider, and along the walls were little rooms with big windows taking the place of the doors that would have separated them from the hallway. In several of the small rooms were pokémon, each lying on a soft bed on the soft floor. Also in the rooms were food and water bowls and a small tray that Snowcrystal realized must be a place for the pokémon to relieve itself, seeing as they couldn't go outside. They passed a vileplume that was obviously badly burned, with very little remaining of its petals, a mightyena whose back and hind legs were also severely burned, and several other pokémon with the same types of injuries. Snowcrystal even saw a forlorn looking growlithe, its back turned away from the window, also with severe burns. Looking at its orange shape, Snowcrystal wondered how a fire type like herself had gotten in that state. She thought, for one horrible fleeting moment, that it might have gotten injured when Shadowflare had burned the forest down, but as they passed it she got a closer look, and from what she could see, the more minor burns that were almost healed and weren't covered by bandages were not Shadowflare wounds.

Snowcrystal understood that this was the place where the humans kept all the burned pokémon. None of them stirred as they walked by. Snowcrystal kept looking in each of the windows for Stormblade, but he didn't seem to be in any of them. They reached the end of the hallway and Snowcrystal finally saw the room that was Stormblade's. It was right near some large doors leading to some other place, which Snowcrystal thought might be where the humans kept their supplies, whatever they were, that would help the injured pokémon. Stormblade's room was larger than most of the others, but he only occupied a small corner of it, the corner with the bed. He looked far too weak to move, and Snowcrystal wasn't sure he could. His food and water had been placed right next to his head, but they looked untouched. _What's wrong with him?_ She thought. Hadn't Katie mentioned he'd been doing better?

"Can we go inside?" she heard Damian ask the strange human.

"Yes," Katie answered for him, and Snowcrystal remembered that she had been there before.

Snowcrystal watched as the human who had led them there walked up to a place in the wall next to the room and pressed some buttons on an odd looking device, and the window-or what Snowcrystal had thought had been a window-flickered and vanished.

Snowcrystal could see the nurse human watching them as they walked inside, and she didn't seem like she was going to leave. She saw Katie kneel down beside the bed, which was very low to the ground, and heard footsteps walking away. For some reason or other, the nurse human had left.

Damien set down the backpack and opened it before kneeling down as well. Snowcrystal freed herself from it and walked over to Stormblade. She noticed some strange tendrils made of some human-made stuff going into parts of Stormblade's upper arm. She wondered if they were hurting him, but not knowing what they were for, she didn't try to remove them, as much as she wanted to.

As soon as he realized the humans were there, Stormblade opened his eyes and looked up at Snowcrystal, a look of disbelief on his face. "S-Snowcrystal?" he whispered. "How did you get here?"

She could tell that it took him some effort to speak, and that he would have asked her more questions if he could. She looked at him and then glanced nervously back in the direction the human had been standing, and seeing her do this, Damian sat behind her, blocking her from view of the hallway. Not knowing how much time she had, she quickly told Stormblade some of the things that had happened since he'd left the group, about how she had found Articuno and what he had said, and what she had decided to do afterward. She also told him about how she and the others had met up with Damian, and how he was going to help them.

Stormblade listened but did not react much. Snowcrystal hoped that he simply believed her without finding everything too surprising and that he wasn't simply too exhausted and weak for it to surprise him. When she had finished telling him the vastly shortened version of the story, he asked her a question. "What about Thunder?" he whispered. "Is she okay? With the humans? Is she getting better?"

Snowcrystal fell silent and avoided Stormblade's gaze. She hadn't wanted to talk about Thunder, but she knew as soon as he'd asked that he had a right to know. "Thunder…" she replied, thinking of what to say for a moment before she realized the human could come back at any minute, and she needed to tell him quickly. "Thunder got captured again…by her old master," she said quietly.

"What?" Stormblade's reply was weak but shocked. "What do you mean?"

"He found us by the canyon where…where Moonlight lived…she tried to attack him, but before she got a chance, he returned her…he still had her pokéball. We haven't seen her since." She didn't say anything else. She couldn't bring herself to look at the expression of alarm and horror on Stormblade's face any longer. She knew how he felt about Thunder. He knew more than anyone, apart from possibly Nightshade, what her life with her old trainer was like…what her life was going to be like again. Snowcrystal looked back at Stormblade, and seeing the hurt and disbelief in his eyes, she didn't have the heart to tell him what Thunder had done before she had been captured.

After a moment Stormblade looked away from her and closed his eyes. "Stormblade?" she whispered, but he didn't try to reply. Somehow she knew that he wasn't going to try and talk any longer.

"I think so," she heard Katie reply. She had just barely noticed that Katie and Damian had been talking. "The nurses were saying that the infection's getting stronger and that's why…well, he's worse now. I did what I could when I was away from the cities, and it seemed like it was working for a while…but I guess the medicine wasn't strong enough…"

Damian didn't reply, but kept looking at Stormblade. He slowly moved the bowl of water toward Stormblade's mouth, but the scyther didn't attempt to drink out of it. After a moment, Damian gave up and set the bowl back down, looking helpless. Snowcrystal thought he looked just as sad as she felt, even though he didn't even know Stormblade. Maybe it wasn't just Stormblade, but all the injured pokémon he was thinking about, she thought. The whole place seemed enough to make anyone-human or pokémon-depressed. Katie, however, didn't seem nearly as affected by it. She regarded Stormblade with concern, but didn't seem overly worried about him. _Of course…_ Snowcrystal thought. _She still thinks he's a murderer…_

Snowcrystal's ears pricked as she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Quickly she got back into the backpack and Damian closed it as the human approached. This time, as they walked back through the hallways, Snowcrystal did not try to look through the opening in the backpack at her surroundings. She did not want to see the place anymore.

When they reached the doors that led outside and the other pokémon, Snowcrystal was surprised when no one asked her questions. She figured that someone, maybe Redclaw, had told them not to until they got back to the camp the humans had set up.

To her relief, there were no incidents with humans during the journey back to the city. They made it back to the camp safely, and Damian told Todd and Inferno to watch the camp and left with Katie to go to the library, promising the two once again that they would get a turn to go next time.

"Shouldn't we…have stayed with them to be closer to the library?" Alex asked. "So we can hear any news faster?"

"No…" Wildflame replied. "I've had enough of that human city for one day."

"What did Stormblade say to you?" Rosie asked Snowcrystal, who really did not want to answer.

"She'll tell us later," Redclaw interrupted. "Now get some rest. You could use some after all that traveling. We all could."

Grateful not to have to answer questions for the moment, Snowcrystal wandered to just outside the camp, alone but not too far from the others. She couldn't help but feel that she was partially responsible for what had happened to Stormblade. If she hadn't agreed to join up with him and Spark…if she hadn't met him at all, this wouldn't have happened. He would be healthy and probably would have found a better home by now. And it wasn't just him. Other pokémon had suffered because they had wanted to help her. Nightshade and Rosie…even Thunder, though whether she had ever wanted to help or not, Snowcrystal wasn't sure. They had all been in danger many times because of the mess she'd brought them into, willingly or not. And now she wasn't even sure if this was something they could really make a difference in or not. They were just ordinary pokémon, searching for something the legendary Articuno did not even know. And how many more pokémon would suffer trying to find it? Cyclone wanted Blazefang's Forbidden Attack, and even though he had to be far away by now and there was little chance he knew where Blazefang was, she couldn't shake the feeling of terror she got when she thought of him, like she was prey hiding in a forest, desperately hoping not to be scented, followed, and found. She didn't think Cyclone would simply give up. He was out there, undoubtedly searching for other Forbidden Attacks, other attacks that would affect the lives of many pokémon, near and far.

She now understood, really understood, why Scytheclaw had refused to try and heal Stormblade. He wanted no part in all this, and she couldn't blame him. But despite that, she still wanted to try and convince him, for Stormblade's sake, because no matter how Scytheclaw, or she, felt about it, Stormblade deserved some sort of hope. And this was the only possible hope he had. She just hoped that somehow, she would be able to help make things right…not just for Stormblade, but for everyone who's lives her quest had changed.

_To be continued..._

_(This chapter started turning out longer than I thought, so some of the stuff that was going to be in this chapter will have to be in the next one. I know not a lot happens, but the some of the stuff in this one is important. I hope it at least gives you something to wonder about._

_And wow, 50th chapter. When I started this story, I had no idea The Path of Destiny would turn out this long. And there's still such a long way to go._

_Also, Jake the eevee was another reference to one of my old stories. An eevee named Jake was a character in a story I wrote in November 2006.)_


	51. Searching

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 51 – Searching**

It was later in the evening when Justin, Katie and Damian returned from the library. All the pokémon waiting for them sat up eagerly, but Snowcrystal could immediately tell from the look on Damian's face that their search hadn't been successful.

"Nothing…" Damian sighed as he released his pokémon into the clearing and sat down on the grass.

"There's still a lot more left to search," Justin reminded him, sounding a bit more hopeful. "And some of the books we wanted were taken. We'll just wait until they're brought back."

"That was pointless," Katie muttered, "we only found the same stupid story over and over again."

"I guess we'll try again tomorrow," Damian sighed.

"Well, Justin and I are going back to the hotel then," Katie said with a shrug, starting to walk in the other direction.

"You are going to help us tomorrow…" Justin began, "...aren't you?" Katie mumbled something in reply that Snowcrystal couldn't hear.

Snowcrystal didn't know how long they were going to be able to count on Katie's help, and though she didn't care much if the human left, she was worried that if she did, Justin…and Spark…would leave with her.

"Uh…Katie!" Justin cried, starting to run after her. Spark began to follow, but paused and looked back at the others. After a moment's hesitation, he started to follow after Justin.

"I can tell the humans you want to stay," Arien suggested to him.

Spark hesitated a bit more, but shook his head. "I'll see you guys tomorrow," he told them sadly, before hurrying into the trees after his trainer. Snowcrystal wondered if he was acting sad because he hadn't had a chance to see Stormblade.

Damian looked back at all the pokémon, who were gathered together in the clearing near the tent, watching him. Snowcrystal could hear some of the others talking and wondered if Arien was telling Damian everything they were saying through their psychic link.

With a sigh, she sat down near Redclaw. "I guess there's not much else to do but wait," she mumbled.

"We're making better progress than we were," Redclaw reminded her. "Now that we have access to the human's knowledge."

"Yeah, but we can't do anything but wait around for them to find it!" Blazefang growled in frustration. "Those humans better find something tomorrow."

Snowcrystal was going to agree, when a flash of light filled the clearing and Scytheclaw appeared in front of Damian. The scizor gave the pokémon gathered there a venomous glare and turned and limped away into the trees.

"Hey!" Redclaw said suddenly, his ears pricked, like he had just noticed something exciting. "Do you think…if Scytheclaw has that healing power…"

Snowcrystal knew what he was going to say. "…then he can heal Stormblade?" she finished.

"Yes, and Nightshade," Redclaw replied, a grin spreading across his face. A few of the other pokémon turned their heads in the direction Scytheclaw had gone, looking suddenly just as hopeful as Redclaw.

Snowcrystal sighed. "I tried asking him last night," she admitted to the others. "He…refused…"

"Then let's force him!" Rosie growled. "A few flamethrowers to the face and he'll do what we want! He'd have to listen to us or get his armor melted off."

"NO," Arien said firmly, causing the ninetales to look at him in shock. The alakazam stood up to his full height, looking very intimidating. "He is Damian's pokémon and I cannot allow you to hurt him. And don't you think your heracross friend and the wild pokémon have hurt him enough?"

"Nightshade-" Rosie sputtered, but seemed too furious to think of exactly what she wanted to say, until she yelled, "NIGHTSHADE HAD TO BEAT HIM UP. AND HE DESERVED IT! HE-"

"Well then he paid for it," Arien said calmly. "Now you can all leave the past behind and move on, just as he is trying to do."

"Now look," Wildflame began, stepping up beside the fuming Rosie. "Who-besides Rosie-said we needed to hurt Scytheclaw? We just need to…find a way to convince him, that's all."

"Good luck with that," Blazefang muttered, rolling his eyes.

"You can ask him," Arien said calmly, "but you can't force him. And if you ask, please at_ least_ try to be nice."

Wildflame glanced at Rosie, and then at the others. "Maybe just a few of us should go," she sighed.

Damian, who had been watching the argument curiously, but not seeming to understand what was going on, climbed into the tent after a moment's hesitation. Snowcrystal sighed. She knew she couldn't be one of the ones to go and try to convince Scytheclaw.

However, Wildflame, of course, didn't realize that. "Do you want to go with me and Redclaw?" the houndoom asked after a few moments, looking at Snowcrystal.

"I….I don't think so," she muttered.

"I'll go then," said Dusk the absol, standing up. "Scytheclaw seems fine around us. He might listen to me."

"Okay, good," Wildflame stated, sounding worried, as if she was secretly as doubtful as Snowcrystal was that Scytheclaw would agree to help. "Do you think we should…give him something? Can someone hunt?"

"Why don't you ask him first?" Rosie muttered, sounding a little calmer. "That way you won't waste your time…"

"We can promise him something, I guess," Redclaw suggested. "But I…I don't know if we should hunt prey when Scytheclaw has plenty of human made food…"

"So what?" Rosie muttered. "Those stupid prey pokémon would kill us if they could! That's just the way nature works!"

Redclaw gave her a fierce glare. "I thought you said we shouldn't waste our time hunting for him…" he growled, but didn't say anything more.

"I…I don't know if…" Snowcrystal began, but stopped herself. She didn't think this was a good idea, but she couldn't try and stop them before they'd even had a chance to try. She wondered if it would be too soon to ask him after what had happened the previous night, but she trusted Redclaw to keep calm.

"Don't worry," Redclaw assured her. "If he refuses, we'll leave him alone for a little while."

Snowcrystal was glad he understood that getting angry or trying to force the decision on Scytheclaw would only make things worse, and watched as the arcanine, houndoom, and absol walked into the trees after the scizor.

* * *

Wildflame wasn't quite sure why she was doing this. It seemed a bit hopeless, but she badly wanted to help somehow…now that everything in her life seemed uncertain, now that she had nothing to bring back to her pack, and that there was no way she was returning to serve under Firedash again. Her future, at least for the time being, lay with this group, and she felt she had to do what she could to help them. Though they had started off as enemies, Stormblade was now her friend. She wanted to help him.

Her thoughts wandered to the previous night and hoped Scytheclaw would be calmer now. She was prepared to apologize for what she had said before if she needed to. Redclaw seemed wary too, and she remembered what had happened when they had first met Scytheclaw away from the canyon.

'_Why did it have to be him?__'_ she thought in frustration. '_Why not some other pokémon with a healing power?'_

They stopped as Scytheclaw's scent became stronger and the houndoom realized he wasn't far away. Dusk stepped forward.

"I think I should ask him," Redclaw told the absol. "After all, Stormblade is our friend." Dusk hesitated for a moment, but nodded solemnly and let Redclaw lead them further on until they spotted the clearing where Scytheclaw was resting.

The scizor noticed them instantly. He leaped up, stumbling a little because of his injuries, but if he was embarrassed or angry at his weakness he didn't show it. He held up his pincers threateningly as they stopped at the edge of the clearing, acting completely unafraid, as if he was facing a tiny piece of prey and not two powerful fire types and an absol. "What do you want?" he asked warningly.

"We want to talk to you," Redclaw told him calmly.

"I know what this is about!" Scytheclaw snapped, his expression even more furious.

"Just listen to us," Redclaw replied. When Scytheclaw merely glowered at him in reply (Wildflame was surprised he wasn't screaming at them to leave yet), the arcanine continued. "We're all willing to put the past behind us. We-"

"Just because you want something from me," Scytheclaw snarled.

Redclaw seemed to decide to get to the point. "We want to ask you to try and heal Stormblade. At least…the Shadowflare wounds. He needs help badly…and you are probably his only chance. We are willing to do whatever you ask for this favor. We can bring you food, the best of our food, every day, and-"

"Damian gives me plenty of food!" the scizor growled. "Why would I want yours?"

Wildflame glanced at Redclaw worriedly. What else did they have to offer him besides food?

"I have everything I need," Scytheclaw told them smugly. "There's nothing any of you can do about it. And I haven't forgotten the way you attacked me…" He glared at Redclaw. "Or what you said after you found out Damian was my trainer!" He gave Wildflame an equally venomous look. "I'm loyal to Damian," the scizor said proudly, lifting his head as if he thought the intruders to his space were beneath him. "_Not_ to you," he spat in disgust.

"Scytheclaw, listen," Dusk began as he padded forward. "I know these pokémon have wronged you…"

Wildflame had to try to make herself look calm when she really wanted to snarl at the absol. _We wronged him__?_

"But you are the only one who can help this scyther," Dusk continued. "I'm not saying you have to or we're going to force you, but…it would be very noble of you to do so. Damian could buy you any sort of food, or treats, or items you wanted. We'd all be grateful if-"

"The answer is _NO_!" Scytheclaw shouted, and for a moment Wildflame thought he was going to fly at them and attack them, but instead he turned and darted further into the forest. Wildflame's heart sank.

"I guess…we'll have to try again later," she said hopelessly as they turned to walk back to the group.

* * *

That night, everyone slept in silence, most of them by themselves. For once, Snowcrystal didn't feel like sleeping next to the others. She couldn't help wondering how Stormblade and Nightshade felt, alone in those buildings without the sky above them as they slept. As she lay down, she felt the grass prickle against her paws. She still wasn't quite used to not being around snow or hard stone, and for a moment she thought longingly of her home, wondering how much the growlithe's territory had shrunk, and what they were doing now. She wondered again if she should have left in the first place. What had this quest accomplished?

'_I'm doing something that's going to help now…'_ she thought to herself. _'It won't all be for nothing…I'm going to help the legendaries, and all the pokémon…It won't be for nothing…I'm sure…'_

Stormblade and Nightshade, she thought, would both want her to continue trying to learn about the Forbidden Attacks. Nightshade had even said so. Still, her little adventure hadn't done them any favors. Yet they had helped her so much…she wished there was something she could do to help them.

Suddenly she sat up. She _did_ know what she could do. For Stormblade, at least. Getting to her feet, she headed over toward where Damian's pokémon were getting ready to sleep. She needed to talk to Arien.

* * *

"So…" Katie began, looking from Damian, to Arien, to Snowcrystal, "you're telling me the police were wrong all this time, and that Scyther-uh, Stormblade-was innocent?"

Snowcrystal looked at Damian hopefully and he nodded. It was morning, and Katie and Justin had just come back from the trainers' hotel, and as soon as they arrived, Damian began eagerly repeating Stormblade's story to them. Unfortunately, Katie just seemed confused, and Justin had been steadily backing away as if he didn't want to hear it at all.

Katie sighed. "Look," she said, "I know Stormblade is their friend, and they want him to seem like he was always a good guy…but how do they know the whole story? And more importantly, why does it matter? I mean, maybe it was another pokémon that attacked that girl, but we can't really know for sure, and-"

"YOU weren't there," Justin said suddenly, stepping forward. The look in his eyes made Snowcrystal crouch lower to the ground. He looked, in a way she couldn't really explain, _frightening_. "You weren't the ones the police came to. There was blood on the scyther's blades. Believe me, the stupid pokémon is making that up. If you're not going to drop this subject…for _good__,_ then I'm leaving."

Snowcrystal gave Damian and Arien an alarmed look. Justin had seemed so eager to help with their new quest, but the look in his eyes was so serious that she didn't doubt that he meant what he said about leaving. She didn't think Justin was that valuable an addition to their team; after all, Damian was far more helpful and he could do anything Justin could, but she knew that if he left, Spark might leave too…

"All right," Damian said reluctantly, looking over at his alakazam, making Snowcrystal think Arien had warned him telepathically not to try and argue with Justin. "We'll drop it."

Justin looked satisfied but still angry, and Katie just shrugged, as if the whole thing hadn't changed anything. Snowcrystal thought she probably had been skeptical because she hadn't wanted to have any false hopes about Stormblade, and before she could really think it over, what Justin had said must have felt like a confirmation of her beliefs. Snowcrystal felt helpless. She wanted them to know all the details Damian had left out in the quick version of the story he'd told Katie, which he'd stumbled over quite a bit and forgot important details that Arien had to remind him off, making his story seem less convincing.

The other pokémon who were listening, the ones who knew Stormblade, looked disappointed as well.

"Well, it was worth a shot," Spark said sadly.

"Why don't_ you_ try to get it through your trainer's thick head that it wasn't Stormblade's fault?" Rosie snapped at him.

Redclaw quickly put himself between the two before an argument could break out. "Look," he growled, "fighting's not going to help Stormblade. If we want to help him, we need to try to keep the humans together. The three of them can search the human's information stash faster together than just one human can. Maybe after Justin has calmed down, we can try again."

"And hopefully Damian can tell it without sounding like a babbling idiot!" Rosie muttered.

"Okay, so maybe explaining things isn't his strong point," Redclaw replied, "but he and Arien are the only form of communication we've got. It's better than nothing. It may take a while, but the other humans will understand."

Snowcrystal wished she felt as hopeful as Redclaw sounded.

* * *

The next few weeks passed uneventfully, and things remained much the same within the group. Katie, after much thought and discussion with the other two humans, had chosen to stay. How long she would stay, Snowcrystal wasn't sure, but she hoped she had chosen to stay with them for the entire search. They needed all the help they could get.

So far, none of the humans had managed to find any useful new information on the Forbidden Attacks, and several of the books had stories with details that conflicted with each other. The humans weren't giving up yet, and insisted that there were many other books they could search through.

That day, however, Snowcrystal was going to go with them. Doing nothing but waiting day after day had, for a while, been peaceful, but her old restlessness had soon returned, and she could no longer stand being unable to help. She wanted to do something, even if that something was just tagging along with the humans for a day, watching them try and find information. She hadn't been able to go into the city with them much before, and she had only been able to see Stormblade one more time since she had last seen him. He wasn't getting worse, but he wasn't getting much better. But he was alive.

Today, the humans had a new idea. If it worked well, it might mean that she would be able to walk the city streets freely alongside them.

It had taken a few tries, but Damian, Katie, and Justin had managed to die her fur to match the color of an orange growlithe's. It had at first been frustrating when Justin kept getting the wrong shade of orange, or the humans weren't careful and messed up, but at last they had succeeded in making her look passably like, as Justin had said, "a normal growlithe". Runty and with a few oddly shaped stripes, but pretty 'normal'-looking overall.

"There," Damian said as he and the others stood back and admired her. "No one will tell the difference."

Justin frowned. "Some of the stripes look weird," he pointed out. "And the cream color is a bit too dark."

"No one's going to be looking at people's growlithe to see if they're actually white," Katie pointed out. "So she's small and looks a bit odd. So what? Some pokémon look a little different. No one's going to care."

Justin just rolled his eyes and muttered, "fine", and without further discussion they were soon on their way. Spark and Redclaw were accompanying them to the library that day, as well as Inferno the flareon and Todd the Elekid. Spark was used to the city, and it surprised Snowcrystal to see him walking down the sidewalk ahead of the humans, at complete ease with his surroundings. Seeing that Snowcrystal was nervous, he soon came back to join her.

"It's not so bad, once you get used to it," he told her.

"Then I wish I was used to it," Snowcrystal muttered back, scurrying out of the way of a human passing them from the other direction. Even though she was still nervous about being discovered, the human didn't give her a second glance.

"Just stick with me," Spark replied cheerfully. "You'll be fine."

As they neared the library, Snowcrystal realized that she didn't recognize anything. The place looked so different from the rain-slicked streets she had wandered through with Sid and Wildflame all that time ago. How long had it been? She wasn't sure. It seemed like ages.

As they walked through the massive library's front doors, Snowcrystal couldn't suppress a feeling of fear as she remembered the last time she was here, running panicked through the halls as a human chased after her. Trying to ignore the feeling as best as she could, she walked in with the others, sticking close to Spark's side.

Inside, the library was just as big and confusing as she remembered it being, though in the light of day and with the company of friends, it was a lot less scary. She paused to give the legendary pokémon portraits around the room a curious glance now that she could see them clearly in the light, then followed Damian and the others further into the room.

She wasn't sure if this was the room Sid had led her into the first time she was here; she remembered there had been pictures of legendaries, but not what they looked like. She let her gaze travel across each one and suddenly remembered that there had been an articuno painting in the room she had first entered. There was no articuno here; this must be a different room.

She wondered which of the towering bookshelves they were going to look for information from, but the humans didn't even stop to look at them. They passed through the room without a glance at any of the books, down a hallway and into a smaller room with crude, brightly colored art plastering the walls along with other cheerful decorations. There were a few human children reading from large, flat books while a mightyena dozed peacefully in the corner.

They walked through that room and down a few more hallways, until they came upon a sight that Snowcrystal did remember.

Ahead of her, on the wall in front of them by where the hallway split into two paths, was the large circular mural of the Forbidden Attacks. Strangely, in the now well-lit building, it still looked foreboding, and she noticed that the others, even Inferno and Todd, had stopped to give it a nervous glance before tearing their gaze away and continuing on down the right hallway. Snowcrystal stared at the strange mural a few seconds longer before following them. A random memory surfaced of her looking at the painting and hearing the human coming, then running down the left hallway, and she wondered what awaited them at the end of the right.

She followed the others down the hallway and past two wide open doors, and the room they arrived in next was the biggest one Snowcrystal had seen. It was truly massive, and the floor formed a round, even circle. The room had multiple stories, each story having rows upon rows of bookshelves around the circular edges of the room. The center of the bottom floor was a clear space with several chairs and sofas upon which a few humans and in some cases, their pokémon, were lounging upon. On the upper stories, this circular space was a massive hole, so Snowcrystal could see all the way to the ceiling far, far, above, the center of which was comprised of windows, which made up a sphere as big as the openings in the upper stories.

Up above, she could make out a few humans walking around by the rails lining the outside of the center of the higher stories, of which Snowcrystal counted four. She watched a flygon lift into the air from the second story to bring a book to his trainer on the third. Way, way up on the fifth story, a plusle and minun sat on the railing, peering downward and squealing something excitedly to one another. All along the walls on the bottom floor, and probably the upper ones too, were portraits, but in this room, they were not mainly of legendaries. Ordinary pokémon made up a lot of the subjects in the pictures here; she even saw one with a large group of stylized growlithe puppies playing in a field.

"See?" Spark said to her with a grin. "Us pokémon are welcome here! Though I sure hope that moron up there doesn't fall off and get the humans all paranoid about us." He narrowed his eyes at the tiny shape of the plusle leaning over the rail.

The place was so massive that Snowcrystal could begin to understand just why the search was taking so long. The humans would be meticulously studying any book with even a chance of having something relevant to the Forbidden Attacks for any clue it might offer them, and as they had long since looked through the obviously relevant books, the search was getting harder.

"All right, you two," Inferno said in a cheerful voice. Snowcrystal knew that he always liked it when he got to accompany the humans. His fur fluffed up and his eyes were bright with enthusiasm as he looked around the room. "Let's get started!"

Snowcrystal wasn't sure what the pokémon could do, and she didn't think they'd be able to do much other than offer the humans moral support, but that seemed to be enough of a job for Todd and Inferno. They eagerly helped Damian, Justin, and Katie put away books or jumped up to the higher shelves to retrieve one for them. They were on the second story, working their way up toward the fifth, Spark explained to her. This room was full of information about pokémon and the world they lived in. While they waited as the humans skimmed through the books, Spark told her of some of the things he had learned from the humans while being here. He told her that they lived in a _region_ called the Inari region. There were other regions too, places called things like Johto and Kanto, and they each had many human cities. Spark told her that by other regions' standards, theirs was a strange one. It had very few species native only to itself, and was home to many species from all of the other regions. Snowcrystal found this interesting, and there were also many pokémon even Spark hadn't seen that he'd found pictures of in books and excitedly showed Snowcrystal.

Snowcrystal found this fascinating, but at the same time, it worried her that this place was so rich in knowledge, yet they hadn't been able to find any further information on the Forbidden Attacks outside of stories that were very likely fictional. Still, she did her best to help, which usually meant picking books up carefully in her mouth and plopping them back on the shelf, as the humans continued to look. Spark told her that none of the computers used to search for books had helped them, and they'd soon given up on that. He also told her that this was a very old and famous library that contained some very old books that may offer more insight than the more recent ones they had been searching through before.

It worried Snowcrystal how long this was taking, but at the same time, she knew that her friends needed the rest. Rosie's leg was much better now, though she still had a limp, and everyone else was much happier and healthier, and very well fed. They now rarely needed to hunt. Katie was a good enough battler that between her battling tournament money and Damian and Justin doing random jobs for other humans with the help of their own pokémon, they had enough money to feed everyone, even the wild pokémon. Perhaps it was better if they waited for a while. At least here, they were likely getting closer to a discovery, and it would help them in the long run to take a long, peaceful rest.

Snowcrystal spent the day helping the humans put away books, watching them as they turned the pages to reveal colorful pictures, or lying down and looking up at all the flying pokémon that occasionally crossed the open space in the middle of the tall room. Then sunset came, filtering through the windows and tinting the room a faint orange. It was time to leave.

After Damian's assurance that tomorrow would probably be the day they found something (which Spark told her that he said every day), they got up and followed the last lingering trainers through the hallways and towards the exit of the building.

"You were a great help," Spark told Snowcrystal as they made their way through one of the hallways. "Aren't you glad you got to come along this time?"

Snowcrystal knew he was just trying to make her feel better, but she nodded.

They walked into the small room where they had seen the human children reading before. Now there were no children, just a few adult humans putting away books and talking in a corner, and the mightyena from before, no longer snoozing but alert and awake with the coming of night.

As they walked through the room, the mightyena saw them and froze.

Snowcrystal paused, and so did the other pokémon, as the dark type walked over to them. She didn't bother to give them a greeting, but walked straight up to Redclaw with a look of concern in her eyes. "That collar…" she whispered. "You…you were there too?"

"What?" Redclaw stuttered, looking completely confused.

"The poachers," the mightyena continued, giving Redclaw a worried look. "The ones that took us from the forest?"

"You mean Mas-" Redclaw paused. "Wait…no. Poachers? Uh…you must be thinking about someone different. You're talking about a group of humans, right?"

"Yes…" the mightyena replied. "So you weren't one of us?" She eyed his collar, and Snowcrystal could tell that she longed to ask him about it, but thought better of it. "The humans can remove that, you know," she continued after a moment's hesitation. "It's difficult, but they found a way to do it without setting it off. If yours has an electrical device, I mean. Go to the pokémon center and they'll tell your trainer who to look for." She looked over at Katie, Damian, and Justin, who had all stopped to wait while Redclaw talked to the mightyena. "You see," she went on, "the police rescued us from the poachers who captured us. I have a new trainer now. He works here. He's very kind. The first thing he did was take me to the humans who got rid of that awful collar. It was so nice to finally be rid of…." Her voice trailed off as her eyes wandered toward Snowcrystal. She stared at her a moment, and Snowcrystal shrank back. The mightyena kept on staring, her eyes narrowed slightly. "You're not a normal growlithe," she whispered.

Snowcrystal's fur stood on end. "W-what? What do you mean?" Had Justin been right about the fur dye?

"Your fur is dyed," the mightyena continued. "I recognize that sort of dye. The poachers used it to color pelts sometimes…to trick other humans into thinking they were the pelts of shiny pokémon. But it's okay," she added quickly, seeing Snowcrystal's worry, "if you don't want anyone to know, it's not that noticeable. I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been around that sort of stuff. But are you…are you normally white?"

Snowcrystal wasn't sure why, but she nodded. No use trying to lie now.

The mightyena's eyes widened. "Rosie…" she whispered. "I knew Rosie. She said she knew a growlithe with white fur. Snowcrystal was her name. Is your name Snowcrystal?"

Numbly, Snowcrystal nodded.

"Where is Rosie?" the mightyena asked, a worried look clouding her face. "Did she…did she make it? Did she find you again?"

"Yes," Snowcrystal replied. "She's safe." Seeing the relief on the mightyena's face made her forget her worries of being discovered by other pokémon.

From the other side of a room, a human called to the mightyena. "I have to go," the dark type whispered. "When you see Rosie, tell her that Nightcloud is no longer with the poachers…that I found a new home."

Snowcrystal nodded. "I will."

Nightcloud returned to her trainer and Snowcrystal's group turned to leave. All the way back she thought about Nightcloud, and remembered a joyful Rosie, upon being reunited with her and Wildflame and Spark, telling her a story of how a mightyena named Nightcloud had helped her, but had been unable to escape herself. So Nightcloud had at last found freedom and peace here in Stonedust City. She would make sure to tell Rosie everything when she got back.

* * *

Stormblade longed to see the forest and trees again. He wished he could go outside to feel the sunshine, and the cool breeze he knew would be blowing at this time of day. And what a lovely spring day it was. From what he could tell.

He was tired of lying there, helpless in the hospital, either in a daze or too bothered by the pain to sleep. Of course, it was much more bearable now, not like his days traveling while injured, which were all one pain-filled blur to him now. But he still felt some of the pain.

And the loneliness, which was much worse.

Stormblade wasn't used to being so alone for so long. He was a scyther, a pokémon meant to live in groups, meant to hunt and travel with others. Sure, the nurses and doctors and their pokémon came in multiple times a day, but only to treat his wounds, then move onto the next pokémon. They never had much time to talk to him because of the sheer number of pokémon in the hospital, and the volunteer trainers were only allowed to work with the healthier pokémon. And Stormblade greatly missed his friends.

Snowcrystal had only been able to sneak back in once, and he hadn't been able to see any of the others. Snowcrystal insisted they were all fine and doing better, but he wished he could see them himself. And Thunder…he could never stop worrying about her. It was terrible, not knowing what was happening to her but knowing that it was something horrible. And there was nothing that any of them could do about it.

He hated this helplessness. Hated that he needed help just to eat, that he had such a large room but he couldn't even move freely in it. He knew how hard it was for them to care for him, and he was grateful to the humans and the pokémon here for their help, and everything they did for him, yet at the same time, it deeply saddened him that he needed to have help with these things at all. He was a scyther. He was a fierce apex predator, a strong and noble warrior. Or at least, he used to be.

He wasn't any of those things anymore.

Though he knew there was nothing he could do, he couldn't help wishing that he could go back, before the battle with Blazefang's pack that resulted in his injuries from the Forbidden Attack. Or even back further, so he never would have found that girl and ruined Justin's dream of being a great pokémon trainer, or maybe still further, so he had never been captured.

And he had made many mistakes even before those ones. In the hospital, he was often alone, simply with his own thoughts. Maybe it was his longing to be wild and free again, or even just to go outside, for a little bit, but his thoughts, when they weren't focused on Thunder and what could be happening to her at that moment, often drifted back toward his days in the wild with Spark…or his swarm days.

Stormblade had tried to put his swarm life behind him. Even when being sent back into the wild after Justin lost his trainer's license, he hadn't tried to join another swarm. It was partly because Spark needed him at the time, partly because it would be hard to find a strong swarm with a good leader, as the way scyther swarms were run tended to vary depending on who the leader was and the tradition of the swarm itself, and partly because he didn't want to relive the memories.

Though now, there wasn't much else to do, apart from thinking of Thunder, but relive them.

Stormblade's own swarm had been a very good one for the majority of the time he was a member of it. He was one of many scyther born there, but unlike the other young ones, who were strong and healthy from the start, he had been very sickly when he had hatched. Many swarm leaders would have had him abandoned in the forest, and the kinder ones would have killed him first, but not Bloodscythe. Though many of the swarm scyther believed that a sickly young one would either die soon, and therefore wouldn't be worth taking care of, or would only weaken the swarm by using up food resources while being unable to hunt himself, the leader refused to have him sent away.

Instead, Bloodscythe himself assisted in bringing Stormblade food, encouraging him to try and overcome the sickness. It was Bloodscythe's belief that abandoning the weak was a foolish and cowardly thing to do, and that made the swarm weaker rather than stronger. 'If we cannot rely on each other in times of hardship,' he had said, 'then why are we a swarm at all?' And the weak, Bloodscythe took care to remind the other scyther frequently, would become strong, and serve the swarm diligently when they became so. How could the swarm throw that potential away because of weaknesses such as illness or injury which would most likely be temporary? Scyther were brave hunters and warriors. Abandoning the weak was not something a warrior did.

Some members of the swarm didn't agree with him, but they obeyed. The injured and sick were taken care of as best as the scyther could manage. Stormblade was, as well, and in his case, Bloodscythe couldn't have been more right. To everyone's astonishment, he had grown from a weak and feeble hatchling into a large, powerful fighter, who was bigger and taller than any other scyther in the swarm, and with the strength to match. He had overcome his sickness and proven to be a valuable member of Bloodscythe's swarm.

Though even still, not all the swarm members were convinced that Bloodscythe's way was right.

There had been a few scyther who had caught a very terrible disease during the winter, and though Bloodscythe had allowed them larger portions of food than what the rest of the scyther got, they didn't last the winter. One of the scyther in the swarm, Silverbreeze, and a large scyther called Boneslice, who had recently joined the swarm after becoming mates with Silverbreeze, were angry at Bloodscythe for wasting so much food on the ill scyther when they believed it should be saved for the strong.

They tried to convince Bloodscythe to change the swarm's law, but he refused, saying that it was still a swarm's duty to care for all its members, and only then could they be truly strong.

Though many scyther agreed with Bloodscythe, they were forced to change their ways when Boneslice challenged Bloodscythe to a leadership battle and defeated him. When a leader was defeated, the new leader was to choose whether or not the old leader would leave or be allowed to stay. Boneslice had gone further than punishing the old leader with exile, and chased Bloodscythe beyond the boundary of the swarm's territory, telling him that he risked being killed if he ever set foot near the swarm again.

They never saw Bloodscythe again.

Boneslice, with Silverbreeze right at his side as his second-in-command, changed the swarm's laws. Sick scyther were left to fend for themselves until they recovered and could return to the swarm, or they succumbed to starvation.

Many of the scyther longed for Bloodscythe to return, but since that was impossible, a few of them challenged Boneslice for leadership. They were failed attempts, and each loser was punished with being sentenced to the lowest rank in Boneslice's new order. The other scyther became afraid to challenge him, and a few were even talking of deserting when Stormblade decided to challenge him.

No one had expected him to; even Stormblade himself would have never guessed he would be driven to such a thing. He was no leader. But he was the only scyther who could match Boneslice in size and strength, and then some.

The battle was fierce at first, but then Stormblade quickly overpowered Boneslice, who was no match for him. Stormblade, being furious with Boneslice for what he'd done to the swarm and the fact that he was willing to leave his comrades to die in the name of survival of the fittest, exiled him permanently from the swarm.

Boneslice's mate, Silverbreeze, was furious and although she hadn't been as against Bloodscythe's ways and beliefs as Boneslice had been, she tried to rally other scyther against their new leader. Her efforts were futile; most of the swarm was glad to see Bloodscythe's ideals returning through Stormblade.

Stormblade ignored Silverbreeze for the most part, and though he didn't show it, it made him angry to think of her idea of how a swarm would be run, knowing that she would have sent him to die if she had been in charge when he hatched. Stormblade didn't know how to be a leader, but he did well enough, doing the same things as Bloodscythe had done.

Until a new threat came to the forest.

When humans began to cut down the forest, Stormblade had not heeded the warnings from the older scyther who told him they should leave, and instead declared that they should drive out the humans, for no one had the right to take a scyther swarm's territory from them. The result was disastrous, with three scyther captured and several more injured, including Stormblade himself. After their terrible defeat, Stormblade led the swarm to seek new hunting grounds, and almost the moment after they found them and decided on boundaries, several of the scyther, including Silverbreeze, rebelled against him. Silverbreeze herself was the one to challenge him in a leadership battle, and in his injured state, he couldn't do much to defend himself.

After a humiliating defeat, he was exiled immediately. He staggered around the forest for a few days, in a daze after what had happened and too injured to hunt properly, until he stumbled upon Justin and his pokémon and was captured.

Stormblade knew that Justin had only kept him because he recognized that a pokémon that could fight back fiercely even when injured was a strong and valuable asset to a trainer's team, and probably, Stormblade thought, because he recognized that Stormblade was bigger than a normal scyther. Justin would have noticed that. Stormblade realized that he must have seemed terrifying to the boy.

He had often wondered what became of Silverbreeze, and now he knew. She must have been overthrown, hopefully by a fair and understanding scyther who would make a good leader, and wandered around until joining up with Cyclone and his army. She must have wanted revenge for what the humans did to the old forest.

Stormblade wondered what his old swarm would think of him now. Bloodscythe would have tried to keep him alive even with Shadowflare wounds, even if all the others believed him as good as dead, as Blazefang had…like _he_ had, before being captured by Katie.

He'd wanted for so long to go back and fix his mistakes, to make it so that he never challenged the humans, that those scyther had never been captured, but there was no way to do that. The only thing he could do was to move forward. But how could he do that, trapped in this hospital?

He had to find a way. He had to fight his hardest to survive, not just for himself, but for his friends. He wanted to help them, to try and repay them for all they'd done for him while he had still been traveling with them, struggling just to rise every day, and he wanted to help prevent any pokémon from being hurt by a Forbidden Attack again. These were the thoughts that kept him going, as well as the hope, the probably futile hope, of being able to help them rescue Thunder from Master. It was probably nothing more than a wild, crazy dream, but it was more bearable than thinking of her being trapped in that horrid life forever.

After all, he thought as he closed his eyes, trying feebly to get comfortable enough to sleep, they had to be trying to come up with a plan to rescue her even as he lay there…

They had to be…

_To be continued..._

_(Okay, so this is the first half of the really long chapter I had to split into two, so the rest of it will be in Chapter 52._

_There was really no good place to split this chapter, so I had to settle for cutting it off after Stormblade's part of it. Speaking of which, both this chapter and Chapter 52 are going to mostly focus on the characters and, in some cases, their backstories. The reason for this is that I want readers to know about them as they are important, and I want it to be before the really major plot-filled events starting in Chapter 53._

_So these two chapters are a sort of break from the action, getting to know more about certain characters and showing some other important details. Chapter 53 is where things start to get more intense, a lot more._

_Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.)_


	52. Secrets of Stonedust

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 52 – Secrets of Stonedust**

Despite her worries, Snowcrystal found herself enjoying her time with Damian and the others. It was a peaceful life compared to what they had recently been living while on their journey, and seeing her friends grow healthier by the day brought Snowcrystal much joy. Stormblade's Forbidden Attack wounds had not gotten worse, and some of the injuries not caused by Shadowflare were slowly healing. Rosie had been overjoyed to hear that Nightcloud finally had found a peaceful life, and despite not being much closer to finding the information they needed, the ninetales seemed much happier, especially after being able to meet and talk with the mightyena again herself.

It had now been almost two months since they had arrived at Stonedust City, and although Snowcrystal was worried that they were taking too much time to find out more about the Forbidden Attacks, the humans continued to search for information, even though they had probably searched every book in the Stonedust City library. Without wanting to leave for another location without any leads on where to find anything about the Forbidden Attacks, Damian, Justin, and Katie diligently searched over books they had already read or skimmed through, hoping to find some detail they'd missed, or searched other sources, such as the library's computers or even stories from other humans. They weren't willing to give up on Stonedust just yet, and neither was she.

Snowcrystal had come to be quite used to looking like an orange growlithe. Damian, Katie, and Justin had perfected the look, and Justin had proudly told her that she looked exactly like a normal orange growlithe.

As Nightcloud had suggested, Redclaw had gotten his collar removed, and luckily there were no questions asked as to why Redclaw wasn't in a poké ball at the time. Free of the constant reminder of Master, Redclaw had grown to be happier than Snowcrystal had ever seen him.

Rosie, after much persuasion, and insistence that Nightcloud herself had gotten help from humans and trusted them, had gotten treatment for her leg. Her limp was much better now, and she was a much better fighter, too. During the time they were waiting while the humans went to search for information or buy food or battle, the pokémon trained with some of Damian and Katie's pokémon, learning new techniques from the much more battle-savvy trainer's pokémon. Damian had bought Rosie some new TMs, allowing her to use moves like flamethrower and fire blast, which she normally wouldn't have been able to learn after her evolution. They passed a lot of their time in practice battles, sometimes alone and sometimes with one of the trainers directing them, talking with each other or simply just relaxing and enjoying a time when they did not have to worry about traveling or about where their next meal would come from.

Arien and Damian had still been unable to make Justin understand Stormblade's story, and whenever they brought it up, he refused to talk to them about it and sometimes threatened to leave. They eventually gave it up, although Katie, who had often listened while they tried to explain it, seemed to believe it, or at least was rethinking the idea of Stormblade being a murderer.

There had also been no luck convincing Scytheclaw to heal Stormblade, but there was no more trouble with him attacking the other pokémon. Everyone made a great effort to be as nice to him as possible, and brought food to him even though his wounds were nearly healed, but he still largely ignored them, obviously knowing they were just being kind to try and get him to agree to heal Stormblade, but in Snowcrystal's case, the kindness was genuine. Scytheclaw showed none of the unfair and cruel leader he had once been; even the arrogance and anger he had constantly displayed toward them in the first few days they had teamed up with the humans seemed to be dwindling. Though he still made no effort to be friendly toward the other pokémon, he showed kindness to Damian and, sometimes, his pokémon team, and he really acted as if he did want to put his old life behind him and start anew. He continued to ignore Snowcrystal and her friends, but he never went out of his way to be mean or hostile toward them, not even Nightshade.

And that was the best part. Nightshade was back.

The heracross was nearly fully healed; he only had a slight limp now. He had been able to go back to them a while before, when his wounds had still been healing, but he had been well enough to live outside with the other pokémon as long as he slept in a clean place in Damian's tent and came to the newly-built pokémon center for more medicine and check ups to ensure his wounds had been healing correctly. When he had first arrived, it had still shocked the others all over again that Thunder had done so much damage, but Nightshade insisted that a lot of the damage had already been there (he didn't mention Scytheclaw by name), and though Snowcrystal knew the worst of the damage by far had been done by Thunder, she was glad Nightshade was trying not to encourage the others' negative thoughts about her.

During the time Snowcrystal wasn't going with the humans to the library or practice battling with the others, she often went off alone into the forest with Nightshade. It was partly because she suspected he was lonely; Thunder may have been rude and awful to him at times even before she attacked him, but she knew Nightshade still considered her a friend, something Snowcrystal wasn't sure she would be able to do in his position. She also knew he had talked with Thunder about things he hadn't told anyone else, though what those things were, she had no idea. He had to have been close to her, in some way. Another reason she spent time with him more was because she wanted to talk to him. He was the sort of pokémon she could tell anything to, about how she missed her home, some random, silly things she did as a puppy, the stories she was told by flying pokémon visiting the mountain, or even more serious things such as how she was worried about Stormblade. Nightshade had even told her how much he worried about Thunder, caught by that horrible human again. She had known he would be worried, but she hadn't known he'd be worried this much. Then again, it did make sense. Nightshade knew of the horrors Thunder had gone through more than anyone else, even Redclaw, and it helped both of them to have someone to talk to. She and Nightshade had spent much of their time together, and were quickly becoming close friends.

He was also, she knew, becoming close friends with Damian as well, and before the constant searching for information had taken its toll on the trainer and what little time he had was usually spent resting or battling for money, he had also talked often with Nightshade. However, now that he was becoming so busy and exhausted, Nightshade's loneliness had seemed far stronger, so Snowcrystal had decided to help him, in whatever small way she could.

During their aimless wanderings together, they often went somewhat far from the group, confident enough in Snowcrystal's new trainer-taught fighting techniques, and the fact that Nightshade was old and experienced enough to be a skilled fighter even without the humans' training, that they didn't worry about the wild pokémon. Most of them in this area weren't very strong, and those that were weren't aggressive. The poacher traps had long been cleared out, so they explored the forest in peace, Nightshade sometimes pointing out certain herbs or flowers or berries to her and telling her what they were.

On one such day, when they had walked further than usual, they reached a strange place near the city that looked odd and out of place compared to everything else. It took Snowcrystal a moment to realize why it struck her as so odd. The trees were lined up in a very unnatural way; only a human could have planted them like that. The grass and other plants looked unnaturally placed as well, and there were odd looking human made things scattered about the area. They were a little more than twice her height, and they had strange openings in the top. She could smell a delicious smell coming from the nearest one, and was about to move closer to investigate, when she noticed that Nightshade was acting strange.

"Come on," the heracross told her in a voice that faltered a bit, "let's go." He quickly guided her away from it, urging her to move toward a different area. She asked him if there was danger, but he did not reply. As they walked away, Snowcrystal looked back at the area, noting how serene and pleasant it looked, even in the shadow of Stonedust City's buildings. But she trusted Nightshade and tore her gaze away; if he suspected there was something sinister about it, there probably was.

A few days later, as Snowcrystal sat with the group on a warm night lit by hundreds of stars, she watched Wildflame and Spark play fighting at the edge of the clearing while the rest of the pokémon sat around a small fire in its center where Damian was cooking some sort of human treat; cooking was one of the many strange human things she'd learned about since being here. Justin and Katie had already left, but Spark had stayed behind with them for the night. A few of Damian's pokémon were talking excitedly with Redclaw, and Blazefang was muttering to Dusk the absol; the two of them had seemed to become friends, or at least as close to being friends as Blazefang would allow, over the past few weeks. Scytheclaw just watched the fire with a forlorn look in his eyes.

Snowcrystal looked past the others and noticed Nightshade by the edge of the clearing, looking up at the stars. It was too early to sleep, and Snowcrystal was feeling restless, so she got up and walked over to him. "Want to walk around the forest?" she asked him.

She was expecting him to say no; he hadn't wanted to explore the forest near the edge of Stonedust City much at all lately, and they rarely walked through it at night, but to her surprise, he nodded, and they set off through the trees.

"There doesn't seem to be much hope left for that library anymore," Nightshade said as they began walking. "Sooner or later we're going to have to find out where we want to go next."

He seemed distracted, and Snowcrystal had a feeling that wasn't what he wanted to talk about at all. "Are you worried about Thunder?" Snowcrystal asked as they walked under the starlight with only the sound of crunching leaves beneath their feet.

"Yes…" Nightshade sighed, obviously not caring to bring up the subject of the library again. "I don't know what's happening to her now, but…unfortunately, I have a good idea."

"Do you think we could get her back somehow?"

Nightshade looked back at her with a sorrowful expression. "…I don't know."

Snowcrystal didn't know either. It would take a miracle for Thunder to escape again, especially since Master would be extra careful not to let her. And even if they could bring her back, with the others allow her to stay? Would she be in an even worse state…and would she attack any of the others? They walked on for a while, Snowcrystal lost in her own thoughts while Nightshade stayed alert and watchful.

"Nightshade," Snowcrystal began after a little while longer, "do you think the humans could do something? About Master, I mean."

"I'm not sure," Nightshade replied. "We don't even know his name. I'm not sure the humans will be able to get help from the police if they don't even know that nor have any idea where he is. Even if we did, he's not bound to stay there for long. Master has to be smart to have avoided them for so long."

"I wish Thunder never tried to attack Master," Snowcrystal said uselessly. "I wish she never attacked you." Nightshade didn't reply, and she continued, "I know some of the others hate her, or at least they act like it, but I don't think they all do. Rosie saw her rescue Stormblade from the mud. She must remember that. And Redclaw knows some of what she's been through. And Wildflame…" She paused, for Nightshade had stopped walking. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Nightshade was staring straight ahead, unmoving.

Snowcrystal walked forward and peered into the dark, but she couldn't see anything that would have made Nightshade stop. She was looking about wildly when she noticed lights above the tree tops. A building. "We're really close to Stonedust," she pointed out. Slowly she took a few steps forward, and when Nightshade made no move to stop her, she passed a group of trees and came upon, once again, that eerily perfect area with the all-too-straight rows of trees. She hadn't noticed it up ahead in the darkness. With a jolt of surprise she quickly backed up until she stood beside Nightshade again.

"Nightshade…" she asked, "what is that place? Why is it bad? Is it dangerous?"

"It could be," Nightshade replied quietly, "but I don't think so. At least not now."

"Then what is it?" she asked, smelling the sweet smell coming from the human made things, but no longer having the desire to go closer to them.

"It is a protected area," Nightshade told her. "A pokémon sanctuary. Trainers are not allowed to come here. I heard some trainers talking about it while in the pokémon center. It's mostly used for helping to bring back species of plants and pokémon that have become uncommon in these parts of the region. But…that isn't all I heard. That is a dark place, Snowcrystal." He didn't elaborate, and she didn't question him.

Snowcrystal realized, not for the first time, that this part of the wilderness around Stonedust was much more lush and full of the signs of pokémon having recently passed through than the other parts of it. The place where Damian and the others had set up camp didn't have nearly as many trees and plants as this area did. And the place didn't seem as rocky, either, as if all the rocks had long since been cleared away. "Oh…" she replied quietly. "It must seem peaceful to the pokémon here, though. They must know that the people from Stonedust are in charge of the area." She looked at Nightshade. "Are you sure it's not dangerous here? Maybe we should warn some of the pokémon if it is…" She glanced back at the moonlit area, her gaze fixated on several massive trees, that looked quite out of place in a long line next to the smaller, more spindly ones that grew in random places near them.

"I don't believe they're in any danger now. And even if they were, there's not much we can do," Nightshade replied. "Most wouldn't leave…some simply can't. For some species, their only suitable food source is grown right here. And any pokémon who has been put here by the city will not likely have much to worry about. Those who travel here, should be wise enough to not rest here long. But yes…" he added after a moment, "it is safe now."

Slowly, Snowcrystal ventured out onto the smooth grass. It was odd, planted in blocks, and even though it was overgrown and wild looking, she could still see that it had been put in specific places. Some of it looked recent too, as if the humans had decided the grass was too wild and torn it out, then planted new grass in its place, in that same strange, orderly way. Why a human would do that, she couldn't begin to guess. She walked up to one of the blocky human things with the sweet smell, and stretched up on her hind legs to try and look inside. She was too short, but the smell was familiar. It was poké blocks, a human treat she had seen Justin giving to Spark sometimes. Damian had even offered them to her once, but she preferred the normal pokémon food, or, on the occasions the humans brought some back from the city, fresh meat.

She noticed that she couldn't hear much of any other pokémon, except for a quiet scampering in the tops of the large trees. She turned around to look and noticed Nightshade staring at them, but unwilling to go closer.

"Nightshade?" she asked, walking closer to him. "Is something wrong?" She glanced around quickly to see if any sort of threat had come near, but detected nothing. "Maybe we should leave this place," she stated in a whisper. "You're right, there's something wrong with it…I'm really sorry. We shouldn't have come. I know you didn't want to…"

"No," Nightshade replied. "I did want to come here. I just didn't expect to come across it tonight." She noticed that he was staring at one large tree in particular.

"Nightshade…?" Snowcrystal whispered nervously.

"There is no danger, Snowcrystal," he told her calmly. He paused for a moment. "Do you want me to tell you something?" he asked her, his look calm but serious, with a hint of some other emotion she wasn't quite sure of. She nodded. "This place…is where I once lived."

"You used to live by Stonedust?" Snowcrystal asked, surprised. "How long ago?" she questioned, having a bad feeling that whatever Nightshade remembered about this place wasn't good.

"Many years ago," he replied. "When I was a lot younger. It's funny, but it hasn't changed much since then. It's as if Stonedust City wanted to keep it looking exactly like a neat and clean human's park all this time. I hadn't lived here long, but I still remember what it looked like."

"Why did you leave?" Snowcrystal couldn't help asking, but something in the pained look Nightshade gave her told her that she probably shouldn't have asked.

Nightshade, however, just sighed. "We had to," he replied. "Those of us who were left. The rest of our group…" His voice gained a more serious tone. "The humans killed them."

Snowcrystal's eyes widened in horror. The humans in Stonedust City…the city that had helped her friends so much…had slaughtered innocent pokémon? That had to have changed by now; it was so long ago. Surely the humans were no longer a threat! "What?" Snowcrystal cried, astonished. "How? Why?"

Nightshade looked away, looking as if he was trying to decide whether or not to tell her. He started to walk away from the tree.

"You can tell me," Snowcrystal told him. "I mean…if…if you want to." After she said that, she had the horrible feeling that she'd made things worse.

"The humans chose to do it," Nightshade replied after a moment, his voice icily cold. "No, they were not the sort of humans who want to destroy wildlife for their own gain, they…well, I didn't find this out until later, but they attacked our group of heracross because…because there were too many of us in one area. We were destroying the trees."

Snowcrystal listened with wide eyes, wanting to say something, but thinking that she shouldn't interrupt in case Nightshade wanted to say more. She had a feeling that she had been very wrong to ask that question, and was all the more wishing she hadn't. But Nightshade didn't seem angry or very upset, just lost in memory. Whatever had happened, it had happened long ago, and she had a feeling that Nightshade didn't often dwell on this part of his memories.

"We didn't know we were destroying the trees," Nightshade continued, his calm tone suddenly vanishing as his voice started to shake, and Snowcrystal thought she saw the hint of tears in his eyes, but he looked away before she could be sure. "We just came here because it looked like a better home than the one we'd left. There was plenty of food, or at least…we thought there was. But the humans…they knew we were disrupting the balance in their newly-built reserve…we weren't supposed to be here, especially in great numbers. So they…they poisoned us.

"I'm still not sure how, exactly, they did it. But they waited until most of us were gathered on our favorite trees, then…they released their poison. They must have made sure it only lasted long enough to poison the heracross there and not any pokémon who they put on the reserve after…because when I came back…"

"When…you came back?" Snowcrystal repeated.

Nightshade was silent. "You don't have to tell me anymore," Snowcrystal told him, still in shock over the whole thing. "I understand."

Nightshade suddenly began to talk again, acting as if he hadn't heard. "Yes, when I came back," he said quietly. "I only survived because I had been gone at the time. Usually we all gathered together in the evening, but I had gone off to ask a nearby beedrill swarm for some honey. I wanted some…to give to my children… My mate, Treeflower…it was her turn to watch them at the time. When I came back, they were all lying on the ground. Them, and most of the others from the group. Treeflower wouldn't wake up, and then some of the humans came back.

"I did not yet know the others were dead, so I attacked the humans. They must have been surprised…a heracross attacking them, when we're normally so peaceful, but they sent out pokémon to fight me. They were not very strong, and I took a few of them down; I don't remember how many. Then when I was wounded they sent out a pidgeot. I was fighting so fiercely that they considered me a real threat, and their pokémon was no longer using the sort of restraint pokémon usually did for trainers' sport battles to ensure that the attacks did not seriously injure. No, that pidgeot was doing his best to make his attacks as strong and damaging as possible. And so was I. I didn't care that I was getting wounded; I was too angry. Then, during the battle, I got close enough to Treeflower and my children to see them closely for longer than the brief few seconds I'd had to see them the moment I first came back. When I looked closely at them during that the battle, it was then that I realized they were dead. And I gave up.

"The pidgeot realized I wasn't going to attack him anymore and there wasn't any more risk, so he came closer, and used aerial ace…" He ran a claw along the scar over his left eye. "It knocked me out, but only for a minute or two. When I came to, the humans were gathering all the heracross and moving them away, including Treeflower and both of our children. They came for me, but I didn't try to fight anymore; I ran off. They told the pokémon to leave me alone, that I'd just die off. I didn't realize until later that they must have thought I'd been poisoned too and that it was just affecting me slower than the others. For a while I just stumbled around through the trees and rocks, having no idea where I was going. I found the survivors after a few days, and we traveled further away as soon as we could. One of them, a heracross named Rosethorn, took care of me. I learned most of the healing skills I have from her. The others told me what they saw happen…with the poison…most of them hadn't seen much, but it was enough for them to understand what had taken place."

The whole time Nightshade had been talking, Snowcrystal had sat in stunned silence, but now she couldn't help crying, "What? Why would they do that? How could they…Nightshade, I'm so sorry…" Her voice trailed off. She really didn't know what to say. When she and Nightshade had talked alone all those days before, she thought Nightshade had been telling her everything that was wrong. _She_ had. But he hadn't told her this. She couldn't imagine what she would do if such a thing happened to her growlithe clan. She didn't want to imagine.

"I don't know," Nightshade replied before she spoke again, his voice sounding weaker than ever. "They could have had trainers come and catch them…but they didn't. Maybe they didn't think that enough of them would…that most trainers would want a pedigree heracross from one of the breeding centers in the city. Or maybe they thought what they were doing was the quickest, easiest solution. But no, I don't know why they would choose that either."

"I'm sorry," Snowcrystal whispered. "We shouldn't have come here."

"It's all right," he replied. "I did want to come here…to remember the happy times in this place."

'_But we didn't talk about the happy times…'_ Snowcrystal felt miserably. She was sure she had just made things a lot worse. For a while the two of them sat together. Snowcrystal tried to help him, but she didn't feel like anything was saying would do any good. For a while they just sat in silence, Snowcrystal wishing she knew what she could do for her friend, and Nightshade with his own thoughts.

Finally, Snowcrystal said, "I think I understand now. I think I understand why Cyclone is doing what he is."

But when Nightshade looked at her, she saw that the look in his eyes was almost like the look she was used to, before they had come to this place. "No," he said firmly, standing up again and looking almost offended at what she'd said, his eyes suddenly gaining a cold look that seemed so unlike him. "What Cyclone is doing is _wrong_. He's not only acting under the misguided idea that all humans are selfish and evil, but he is dragging other innocent pokémon into it, and they want to harm countless humans and pokémon who have done nothing wrong. I don't think I'll ever understand why Cyclone is doing what he is."

"But…" Snowcrystal began, taken aback. "Those humans…you told me about…they did horrible things. Cyclone probably had horrible things done to him by humans too. I mean, I can understand why he'd want to fight them, considering the things they do."

"Those humans may have done a bad thing," Nightshade replied sadly, "a very bad thing, but they did not choose badly because they are humans. Most humans, just like most pokémon, are not like them. Most of them are trying their best to do good. Being a human doesn't change that. There will always be bad pokémon and bad humans; it's not what you are that determines whether you are good or evil."

Snowcrystal realized he was right. What Cyclone was doing was the equivalent of a pokémon trying to eradicate all growlithe because all the ones he'd known had seemed to only do harm to other pokémon. It wasn't right…especially for those who were innocent yet hated for what they were. Cyclone might think that he was doing the right thing, in some twisted way, but his hatred of humans, whatever the reason for it, blinded him to the reality of just what his actions would cause to befall on both humans and pokemon.

"You're right," she said in little more than a whisper. "Cyclone is wrong…even if I can understand why he might be angry." She looked up at Nightshade. "Why did you want to tell me this?" she asked. She hadn't thought this would be something Nightshade would want to tell anyone, let alone some silly growlithe like her who was completely useless when it came to being helpful.

"Because you are my friend," he replied. "And… I guess that's what I'd been trying to tell Thunder. That there is value in having friends, and talking to them about things that are hurting you. I hope she understood that…she would have understood it, had she been with us longer. She's a smart scyther."

"I…I think she would have too," Snowcrystal replied, though truthfully she wasn't sure. The image of Thunder finally snapping and attacking Nightshade was still too firmly ingrained in her mind. There was something truly wrong with Thunder, and she wasn't sure it could ever be made right.

"We should go back," said Nightshade, in a voice much more like the one she was used to, but still with a hint of sadness. He didn't wait for her answer, and simply walked away from the human's protected area, without looking back.

Without a word, she followed.

* * *

The next morning, Snowcrystal offered to go with the three trainers to the library once again. She was eager to do something to help, even if all she could do was to try. Though Justin had grown extremely impatient and was constantly demanding they find some other place to look for information, and fast, Damian had insisted that there must be something at the library they had missed and that they should look again.

So, after a brief argument, they decided to go, and Snowcrystal went with them. During the journey to the library, she was so busy thinking about what Nightshade had told her, and about Cyclone, that she didn't speak to any of the other pokémon until they walked through the library's doors.

"The library is so boring," Spark complained as they walked down a hallway. "I wanted to do battle practice today!"

"Why didn't you stay with the others, then?" Wildflame, who had chosen to come along too, asked.

"Justin wanted me here," Spark told her. "I'm his pokémon! If he wants me to be here, I'll be here! I just….really think this is boring."

"You could have just made it clear you wanted to stay," Wildflame muttered. "Justin isn't right about everything. Look at how he still won't stop thinking of Stormblade as a murderer."

"Hey!" Spark cried. "You…you can't judge him just because of that! He-"

"Drop it, Spark," Wildflame snapped. "Let's do what we came here for." She turned and sped up to catch up with Katie, who was leading the way down the hallway. Spark slowed down and trailed behind everyone else.

Snowcrystal slowed so he could catch up. "Don't worry about it, Spark," she told him. "I…I think it was nice you wanted to keep your trainer company."

Spark acted like he hadn't heard the compliment. "I don't know what to think!" he almost wailed. "Stormblade is my friend, but Justin is too, and he's the friend I've known the longest…ever since I was an eevee! He did so many things for me, but…but I don't know! I mean, I can't blame him for being angry about losing his license, even if it wasn't Stormblade' fault. I…"

He paused, for they had both just heard someone calling to him. The growlithe and jolteon whirled around to see Nightcloud running toward them. They had seen the mightyena a few times since meeting her, but she usually stayed in some other part of the library with her trainer or, occasionally, the child humans, and had only really made an effort to meet any of them when Rosie was there. Snowcrystal looked at Damian, who told her she and Spark could catch up later if they wanted. As the humans left, Nightcloud stopped in front of them.

"Back here again?" she asked, and there was a curious look in her eyes. "You come here a lot, don't you?" she added, glancing at Wildflame and the humans as they walked out of sight.

"Yeah," Snowcrystal replied. "We're…we're trying to look for something." She took a deep breath. No point in keeping it a secret. "We're looking for books that mention the Forbidden Attacks. Do you know of any?" There wasn't much of a chance the mightyena would know of a book they hadn't looked through already, but she figured it was worth a shot.

Unsurprisingly, Nightcloud shook her head. "I don't know what any of the books say," she admitted. "I hear them being read aloud in the children's room sometimes, but that's it. And no, no Forbidden Attacks there. I'm sure they're in the stories for older humans, though."

"We've looked," Spark told her, trying to sound normal, though his voice shook. "We haven't found anything that's helped us."

"You've looked in all of them?" she asked.

"We had to have searched every book in this whole stinking library!" Spark growled in frustration.

Nightcloud looked thoughtful for a moment. "Why do you want to find out about the Forbidden Attacks so much?" she asked.

Snowcrystal didn't know what to say. Where would they begin? Would Nightcloud even believe them? She opened her mouth, but it was Spark who spoke first.

"Because they exist!" he told her. "We need to find out everything we can. You know that forest that burned down near here? A Forbidden Attack did that! No ordinary fire would have done that much damage! It was a Forbidden Attack! We NEED to see any book that could tell us _anything_!"

Nightcloud just stared at him. Snowcrystal was sure she hadn't believed one word that came out of the jolteon's mouth. She probably even thought he was crazy. But when she spoke, she didn't even mention Spark's outburst.

"There are…other books in the library," she said slowly, keeping her voice down as if she was afraid someone-though there was no one in the hallway but the three of them-would overhear. "People aren't allowed to look at them or check them out; they're too valuable. You see, Stonedust City's library contains some very, very old books. My trainer says that most of them are one of a kind. Only certain humans are allowed to read them, humans that study those old times, I think, and then only with certain permission."

"Books older than the ones on the fifth story we were looking at a little while ago?" Spark asked, his anger temporarily forgotten and the light of excitement in his eyes, which brightened when Nightcloud nodded.

"Much older," the mightyena said.

"Are there copies of these books anywhere?" Spark questioned excitedly. "You know, have humans rewritten them?"

"No," Nightcloud replied. "The Stonedust City library doesn't want them reprinted, at least not fully. I don't know why for sure; it might be because they want them to stay more valuable or they want the humans who study things to come here. And I'm sure they don't think they're important enough to most people for it. To most humans they're just old stories."

"Could we get permission to read them? Our trainers, I mean?" Snowcrystal asked.

"No," Nightcloud replied. "They'd never let a couple of teenagers and some twenty-year-old in the place where they're kept. I've never even been in there myself. But I know where it is."

"Where?" Spark asked.

"I…" she paused, hearing a human voice calling to her. "I can't tell you now," she whispered. "But tomorrow evening, meet me in the big circular room. I'll explain then. Bye." She hurriedly ran toward the voice.

Snowcrystal and Spark stared after her in stunned silence. Secret books? That no one but a few were allowed to read? And they were very old…

Snowcrystal was suddenly seized with a brilliant, fleeting hope. Books that old…could have something none of the other books had, even if they were only stories. They could be stories that had some truth to them. They could find what they were looking for at last in those mysterious books…right here in the library they had been about to give up on…

But she also knew it was likely that none of them had any information at all, and she felt that brilliant hope fade. She was probably getting too excited over the idea of the old, all but forgotten books hidden in the massive Stonedust City library.

But even still, as she watched Nightcloud turn a corner and join her trainer, a bit of that wild hope faintly still lingered.

* * *

_Author's Note:_

Okay, I think before you comment, before I go on to write any more Path of Destiny stuff, I need to explain some things here. First of all, due to the unfortunate fact that the early events of Chapter 53 are going to take up much more room than I originally planned, the part where the story's plot gets more intense will have to be moved to Chapter 54. But I guess it's something for me to look forward to when I write, since it's something I'm very excited for.

Second of all, this (meaning the chapter 52 I just posted) is not the sort of thing I usually write (I'm sure you realized this as you were reading through this chapter). I held off posting this a long time because I could not get it to sound right, but I thought about it and in the end decided it's not going to get any better while I'm still at the skill level I am now, and I've held up the story too long for it.

The third thing, and the most important, is that I don't want everyone to get the idea that every Path of Destiny character has a horrible past. They don't, but that's another reason I was unsure about posting this. However, in the end, this is important to the story, so in the story it stays. And an important part of the purpose Nightshade's past serves is to be kind of a reflection of Cyclone's, but with a very different outcome.

It will not be the last sad thing in the story, but I feel that from this point, the story starts to move away from the depressing sort of feeling it had in several chapters with things like Stormblade's part in the story, and more like the dangerous fantasy adventure it was during the cave chapters or the chapters about their journey on Articuno's mountain, which were my favorites. Also, looking back, I feel like Stormblade's parts in the story were too depressing, and I don't think they would have been if he had only been injured by Shadowflare (I mean, characters in a lot of my stories would get injured/sick/die/have other bad things happen to them, and I loved writing about how the characters pulled through and triumphed anyway, and I found that inspiring, but none of them ever had that overly depressing storyline with constant new bad things happening like Stormblade's did). I don't regret writing it that way, though, because everything I wrote in those chapters did help in some way to lead the story to where it is now, even if I wouldn't have done the same if I were starting it now. And although I can't tell you what will happen to Stormblade or anyone else, I'm still looking forward to writing about them despite their bad situations. I guess now there is nothing more the characters can do but move forward. They still have much of a story to tell.


	53. Meetings

**The Path of Destiny**

**Chapter 53 – Meetings**

It was decided, after Snowcrystal and Spark revealed everything that Nightcloud had said, that they would go to the library in the evening to see what the mightyena had to say. What they would do afterward, no one was quite sure yet. Most of the pokémon were very willing to sneak in to take a look at the books hidden in secret, and so were Justin and Damian, but Katie was unsure. It was morning now, and as soon as Justin and Katie returned from the trainer's hotel, they began discussing the matter once again.

"Well, Snowcrystal did manage to sneak in there once," Justin stated. "I guess it wouldn't be too hard."

"There were still people in the building when Snowcrystal was there," Katie replied, obviously remembering Snowcrystal talking about the time when a human had chased her in the library. "There'll probably still be janitors, or other workers…and that had to have been before they closed it down for the night…they must have alarms, or…or some other type of security system…"

"Maybe we could find a place to hide in there until late at night," Justin suggested. "Then we could open a window if we needed one of the wild pokémon's help, or just use our own pokémon, or-"

Katie sighed. "I…I don't like the idea of sneaking around the library at night. We should at least try and explain things…"

"Who's going to believe you?" Justin told her with a glare. "From what that mightyena said, there's no way they'd let us-"

"I really think we could pull it off," Damian began, "if we-"

"Look, Justin," Katie told him, cutting Damian off. "We shouldn't sneak around the library…unless we have to," she added with a sigh. "We should try and explain things first. Maybe they'll let us look at the books."

"I don't see why you're so worried," Justin muttered. "We've got pokémon! We were in that library almost every day for weeks. The only cameras they had were at the front where you first walk in the doors. They seem to only care about people trying to steal books while they're walking in and out of the front doors all day…"

"If what the mightyena said was true," Katie said with a glare. "The place with these rare books has got to have some sort of protection. Do you really think it wouldn't? And you don't know for sure that the library doesn't have any other ways of catching intruders. It's one of the biggest, oldest, and most renowned buildings in the _entire_Inari region. Surely it can't be easy to just-"

"Why don't we wait until the mightyena tells us more about it?" Justin asked. "Her trainer works there, so she should know what happens at night."

"Why don't we just try_explaining_to them?" Katie retorted. "We'll figure out what to do after that."

"We should all go today," Damian said before Justin could reply, picking up his backpack. "If Katie wants to, we could try talking to all the workers we see in the library, and-"

"What about the pokémon?" Katie asked. "Should we just leave the wild ones here?"

"I guess so," Damian replied.

Rosie growled. "I'm tired of waiting around here!" she shouted.

"Yeah!" agreed Inferno with a shake of his yellow mane. "Why don't we go and battle?"

The rest of the pokémon murmured something in agreement at the flareon's words, but they didn't loudly protest. As tired as they were of being stuck in one place, they knew that what the trainers were doing was important.

Last night, they had moved their camp to a different area further away from the city, after the wild pokémon had spotted a couple of trainers close by and became nervous. Their new camp was a small, rocky ravine with little plant life, and though it seemed more hidden and therefore safer, most of the pokémon didn't like it.

Snowcrystal sighed as she glanced along the dusty walls of the ravine that sloped gently upward, gently enough for even small pokémon to climb with ease, but high enough that they wouldn't be noticed from a distance. They had chosen this spot for that reason; it was hidden enough that trainers wouldn't be able to see there was anyone sheltering here unless they were close, and they were far enough from the city that it didn't seem to be an issue; most humans didn't venture past Stonedust in that direction at all. At first, moving to a new camp had seemed like a welcome change of pace, but now that they were there, the light brown boulders and dusty walls surrounded by a flat rocky plain were bleak and uninviting.

"I want to go to the city," Alex sighed in frustration as she drew patterns with her claws in the dust. "I hate it here."

This time, many of the other pokémon were more vocal in stating their agreement, some asking Arien if they could go with the humans to the library. Damian, who obviously knew what they were talking about through his link with the psychic pokémon, looked thoughtful. "I know!" he said in a cheery voice. "I know what to do! I can't believe I didn't think of it before!"

"What?" Justin asked, looking excited. "You know how we can get the books from the library?"

"No, not that," Damian replied, not noticing the disappointed, disapproving look Justin gave him afterward. "I know where the pokémon could go for the day! The Pokémon Park!"

"Damian…that's not for wild pokémon," Katie pointed out. "That's why we didn't use it before."

"Nobody has to know!" he replied. "They'll behave themselves. Trainers drop pokémon off there all the time. There are always trainers watching in case any trouble happens, and the people who work there will make sure the pokémon are safe!" He turned to the pokémon, who were looking at him with either interest or boredom. "Who wants to go to the park?" he asked them.

Several of the pokémon gave excited cries. Snowcrystal had no idea what a park was, but she knew that whatever it was, it had to be better than the place they were resting in now. To her surprise, Nightshade also looked eager to go.

"Damian, I don't think this is a good idea…" Katie began.

"It'll be fine," Justin shrugged. "Just let them know they can't eat any pokémon there and it will be okay."

"Don't worry, Katie," Damian assured her in a calm voice. "We can leave some of our pokémon there with them. They've been there before. They'll look after them."

"Okay," Katie sighed. "But you're going to be the ones answering to the park workers if something goes wrong."

**-ooo-**

After being absolutely sure that Snowcrystal's orange growlithe markings were spot-on, the three trainers and the wild pokémon who had decided to go to the park-Snowcrystal, Wildflame, Alex, Nightshade, and Redclaw-headed toward the facility. Snowcrystal had never been to this area of the city before, and when she saw the park itself, she was amazed.

The Pokémon Park sat in the center of a wide ring of buildings, an absolutely huge grassy field littered with large boulders and several strange structures which many pokémon were climbing on. There was a vast pool to one side, where she could see water pokémon playing. There were also many trees, which pokémon were climbing or running around cheerfully.

She was still staring at it in awe when Damian and the others approached the part of the large gate where the entrance was. Snowcrystal figured that the gate was more there to look nice than to serve any sort of function, because she was sure pretty much any pokémon could find a way over, under, or through it.

"We'd like to let these pokémon in," Damian explained, gesturing toward the five wild pokémon who had followed them on their journey. "And a few others, we-"

The person sitting at a table set out at the entrance looked over the edge of the book she was reading and at the pokémon until her gaze rested on Nightshade. It took Snowcrystal a moment to realize that she must have noticed his limp. "Well…" the strange human began in a monotone voice, picking up a small sheet of paper lying on the desk and staring at it. "If your pokémon is injured, you need a note from the pokémon center before entering the Poké Park. You should also-"

"He'll be fine," Katie said after a quick worried glance at Damian. "He just wants to climb the trees. He'll stay up in one the whole time. He won't get himself injured worse. Could he just-"

"Sure, whatever," the human said carelessly with a shrug. She threw the paper back down on the table and went back to reading her book. "Just send out the pokémon you want, and if you're leaving, please sign here and tell us when you're coming back…" She slid another paper toward Damian, who began writing something on it with a pen from a cup on the edge of the table. The worker human droned on. "Your pokémon are not allowed to take food out of the Poké Park. Your pokémon are not allowed to attack or eat other trainers' pokémon. Don't abandon your pokémon at the Poké Park. Ill-behaved pokémon will be kicked out and forced to wait in the park building for your return…oh, just read the rules over there," she muttered in an annoyed voice, pointing to a sign.

None of the trainers bothered with reading the rules-Snowcrystal assumed they knew them already-and the human working there didn't seem to care. Katie sent out her azumarill and shinx, Justin sent out Spark, and after Damian finished signing, he sent out Todd, Inferno, and Scytheclaw.

"Uh…" Katie began, staring after the scizor as he walked through the gate after the other pokémon had excitedly ran through it, but instead of finishing her sentence, she just shook her head and sighed, muttering, "Let's go."

Snowcrystal turned to watch the humans leave, when the voice of the book reading human made her jump. "Hey, puppy," she muttered, waving a rolled up piece of paper at her, "either get in or leave."

Nervously, Snowcrystal followed the others, seething. _I am not a puppy!_

As she walked through the gate, she noticed a few pokémon with blue collars patrolling the edges of the gate and watching the playing pokémon carefully. She thought they must be there to make sure the other pokémon behaved. She glanced at one, a tall mienshao who was watching near the gate, and he returned her glance before nodding toward the open field her friends were heading. She hurried to follow them.

As Scytheclaw veered off from the others toward one of the areas with trees, Snowcrystal caught up with the rest of the group. "So what are we supposed to do here?" she asked. "Do we…just do what we want?" She looked at the other pokémon cluelessly.

"Look at this!" Spark cried in delight. "Food!" He bolted over toward a group of small stands that held containers full of pokémon food. He wasted no time in shoving his head into one of them and gulping down as many of the brown pellets as he could.

"Uh…that's nice," Snowcrystal replied. She had never completely gotten used to human food. She turned to look around, wondering what area to explore first.

"I'm going to go over toward those trees," Nightshade told the others, a hint of sadness in his voice. When he was sure they had heard him, he turned and limped off toward the nearest tree group.

"Hey, Spark! Look at this!" Alex cried in excitement, pointing toward a strange construction that had several large tires hanging from ropes. A group of pichu were swinging back and forth on the nearest one, squealing excitedly. Without waiting for an answer, Alex bounded over toward the tires. Katie's azumarill and shinx glanced at each other and followed.

Inferno looked around at the remaining pokémon. "I think we can trust you guys to do what you're told. Go wherever you want. Just don't fight, be kind and respectful, don't leave the Poké Park, and you'll be fine." He and Todd then gave excited yells and bounded off toward one of the play structures.

"Well…" Wildflame muttered in annoyed voice. "So much for showing us around."

"Well, that means we get to explore the place," Redclaw replied.

"Great," Wildflame grumbled unenthusiastically.

Spark walked over to them, licking food crumbs from his mouth. "Do you think I'd get in trouble if I zapped the pokémon in the pool?" he asked mischievously.

"_Yes_." Redclaw gave him a cold stare. "Don't try it."

"I was only joking!"

"Well," Wildflame began. "I'm going to go over there." She angled her head toward a group of boulders. "I'll see the rest of you later."

"All right!" Spark called back, before turning and running toward where Alex was swinging on one of the tires, nearly knocking over a baby squirtle in the process.

Snowcrystal looked at Redclaw. The arcanine sighed. "If it's all right with you, I want to take a short nap first," he said tiredly. "I'll come and find you when I wake up if you want."

"All right," Snowcrystal replied. "I'll be fine by myself."

She left Redclaw as the arcanine went to find a place to sleep and headed toward the tree covered side of the park. Up close, she realized that there weren't as many trees as she had first thought, just several big ones for pokémon to climb on. It seemed a bit more inviting than a real forest. She couldn't see any snow covered place in the park, and the only ice type she saw was a glaceon who seemed to be in a race that involved leaping across boulders with a couple of other eevee evolutions. She also noticed, for the first time, that there were a few trainers here, playing and interacting with their pokémon and any random pokémon who happened to pass their way wanting human attention.

She headed toward a place near the trees which seemed to have the biggest collection of boulders, for that reminded her most of her home. As she walked, she heard a human shout toward her.

"Hey, look at that growlithe!"

She froze, and then slowly glanced down at her fur, but it still looked convincingly orange. She turned around to see two young male trainers. One of them was pointing at her.

"It's really small, isn't it?" the other trainer asked. Snowcrystal relaxed a bit.

"Yeah…" the first one said, narrowing his eyes at her, not in a hostile way, but merely a curious one. "Wonder why her trainer didn't get a quality one bred…"

She started to walk away from them, and barely heard another trainer beginning to argue with the two that it didn't matter where a trainer got their pokémon from. As their voices faded away, she wondered if this was what Nightshade had talked about, about many of the humans in Stonedust City wanting pokémon from breeders. It wasn't of much concern to her, but it still struck her as a bit strange.

She still hadn't reached the clump of rocks when another trainers' conversation reached her ears, but this time it wasn't about her.

"…as usual there are eevees everywhere," one of them was saying. Snowcrystal stopped to listen, not sure why, but thinking of Spark as the humans continued talking.

"Pretty much every trainer has them now," the trainer's friend agreed.

"And they're breeding so many of them that there's still some on the streets. Of course, most of them get picked up by trainers, but it's still a nuisance. Some of the breeding centers simply produce too many."

_Humans breed pokémon without knowing if they'll be wanted?_ Snowcrystal thought, bemused. Of course, she didn't know much about how humans bred pokémon at all. Damian had told her that some trainers raised their pokémon's offspring and found new trainers for them, but this sounded like something different. Something more like whatever Nightshade had hinted at when she'd talked to him. Spark had told her a little while ago that he had come from a breeding center, and that Justin picked him out himself. He had told her that the center he'd come from had been nice and eevee who weren't picked out were sent to pleasant pokémon ranches, and she wondered if there were other centers that weren't so nice. If anything, she thought, those two humans should be focusing on trying to stop the humans who were abandoning eevee in the streets. They were humans themselves, so why didn't they do something?

Quickly losing interest in the trainers' conversation, she headed on toward the rocks. Upon reaching them, she noticed that the area was a lot bigger than she'd thought it was. There were several groups of pokémon here. She spotted a graveler talking to a gloom by one rock close to her, and a few marill hopping about on another. And beyond them…was Scytheclaw.

Snowcrystal stopped in her tracks. She hadn't expected to find the scizor here, and she knew he probably wouldn't want to see her around. After a moment's hesitation, she decided to stay, but to keep her distance from him.

Snowcrystal spent the next few minutes climbing about on the rocks. Some of the pokémon stopped what they were doing to watch, some congratulating her and telling her they'd never seen a growlithe jump like she did. She enjoyed the attention; it was nice to not have to hide all the time, but soon she grew tired of it, and she climbed down and began idly walking among the rest of the boulders, watching the other pokémon.

As she wandered, she noticed Scytheclaw again, standing beside a boulder not far from where she was. She was about to head in the opposite direction, when she noticed he was looking at another trainer. Standing beside the trainer was another scizor. This scizor was a female, and unlike Scytheclaw, she looked healthy and well groomed. Scytheclaw was looking at her warily, and when her trainer walked away toward where a lucario, presumably one of his other pokémon, was sitting, Scytheclaw approached her.

Now that Snowcrystal could see Scytheclaw compared to another scizor, the only other scizor she'd ever seen, she noticed that he looked a bit different. He was a somewhat darker red than the other scizor, who certainly didn't have that odd sharp looking edge on the insides of her pincers. She had known that Scytheclaw was different in that respect; he would often spend hours a day making the inside edges of his pincers as sharp as he could.

The strange scizor looked up as Scytheclaw approached. When Scytheclaw spoke, his voice sounded surprisingly gentle and kind.

"So it happened to you too?" he asked.

The other scizor seemed confused. "What?" she asked.

"Your trainer forced you to evolve," Scytheclaw replied.

"What? Oh, of course not!" she replied, looking more confused than ever. That was probably nothing, Snowcrystal thought, compared to how confused Scytheclaw would look. She couldn't see his face, as his back was turned towards her, but her suspicions were confirmed with Scytheclaw's reply.

"You mean you _chose_to evolve?" he replied, his voice filled with disgust.

"Yes…" the scizor replied.

"Hey," a voice from near the two scizor cried, "believe it or not, not everyone wants to stay in their first form forever." Another pokémon had apparently heard Scytheclaw's outburst.

Scytheclaw didn't seem to be listening. As he began asking, or more accurately, yelling, at the other scizor about why she would choose to abandon her scyther form, Snowcrystal decided that she'd had enough of his nonsense and decided to go see if she could find any of her friends. A few seconds later, she noticed Scytheclaw storming away, looking both confused and angry. She had no idea why he wanted to go screaming at random pokémon, and part of her wondered where the calm, collected leader she had seen in the canyon had gone. She watched the scizor head toward a group of trees before turning back toward where she was pretty sure Redclaw had gone.

All at once she realized that there was another commotion happening on the other side of the park. She wasn't close enough to hear what it was about, but several pokémon were fighting and a few trainers, one of them one of the ones that had been talking about eevee in the city, were shouting orders to them. A few humans and pokémon ran toward them, telling them that battling in the park was not allowed, and Snowcrystal started to walk the other way.

"Hey, Snow!" a cheerful voice cried, and she turned around to see Spark. Before she could even reply with a greeting, he said, "all the workers are distracted by those fighting pokémon over there! We can do whatever we want! But we have to hurry!"

"Hurry for what?" she asked, perplexed.

"We can have battles on the rocks!" Spark replied happily. "Or around the trees! I used to play this great game with Justin's other pokémon. It'll be even more fun with lots of us. You see, we split up into teams…"

Spark went on with his description of the game, but Snowcrystal wasn't really listening. She was starting to wish she were back in the dusty new camp, instead of here around all these strange pokémon and humans.

"And then we all try to attack each other!" Spark said loudly. "If a pokémon makes it to the other side without getting hit by an attack-"

They were both suddenly interrupted by the sound of some sort powerful pokémon attack nearby, as well as the angry shout. "You leave him alone!" the pokémon screeched. "You hear me?"

"I heard you!" an equally angry voice shouted back. It was Scytheclaw's. Snowcrystal and Spark gave each other a curious glance and then ran toward the noise. It didn't take long for them to reach the scene.

Scytheclaw stood facing a furious looking feraligatr, while a scared looking totodile hid behind the branches of a tree. "The little brat walked right in front of me!" Scytheclaw snarled. "I nearly tripped over it. Really, do you think I wanted to touch that disgusting pokémon on _purpose_?"

"Scytheclaw has such a way with words," Spark said in a mock admiring voice, a huge grin on his face.

"Uh…maybe we should go…" Snowcrystal began to back away. Several other pokémon were now approaching the scene; some of them looked like friends of the feraligatr, and others like merely curious bystanders.

"Stop lying! You hurt my son on purpose!" the feraligatr growled. Scytheclaw only responded by calling him a very rude name. With a roar the water pokémon lunged forward.

Snowcrystal expected the powerful pokémon to slam Scytheclaw into the ground, but before he even got close, Scytheclaw darted away, and Snowcrystal was suddenly reminded of how he had moved so quickly during his battle with Nightshade. Even after a while of wandering in the wilderness and an even longer time recovering from injuries, Scytheclaw was still a formidable battler.

Without losing any speed, the scizor turned and rammed into the feraligatr, knocking him off his feet and sending him plowing into the ground several yards away. A few of the watching pokémon cried angrily, and some of them stepped forward.

Suddenly several of them – all fire types, Snowcrystal noticed – leaped into the clearing and flung their attacks at Scytheclaw, who dodged the whirling arcs of flame and tried to fight back, only for several more to jump into the fray.

Snowcrystal watched in complete horror, wondering why Scytheclaw was still so determined to attack. The scizor fought whatever pokémon came in reach, slashing at them with his sharp pincers, but he was quickly tiring, and the other pokémon showed no such fatigue. Still, it seemed like he was doing a fine job of holding them off until one of them managed to score a direct hit with a fire attack and knock him off his feet. The pokémon, a female typhlosion, pinned him to the ground. "I saw what you did, you bully!" she snarled. "Tell the truth and apologize!" Scytheclaw's only response was to spit in her face. Enraged, she threw him across the ground and launched another fire attack.

Scytheclaw leaped to his feet and managed to avoid the worst of the blast, but by now, several more pokémon had come in to defend the ones he'd been fighting before. Scytheclaw struck out at several of them, but they kept him turning around by attacking him while they had him surrounded. Once he tried to strike at one pokémon, several more would attack him from behind. Scytheclaw suddenly didn't seem to be able to fight as well as she remembered. Maybe he was still injured, or maybe it had simply been so long without practice. Nevertheless, he stubbornly struck out at the other pokémon regardless of his disadvantages. Snowcrystal noticed the female scizor from before watching the battle with and alarmed look. "Stop!" she tried to yell at the pokémon. "Stop this!"

"This wasn't the sort of battling I had in mind…" Spark muttered beside Snowcrystal. "We're supposed to be having _fun_."

By now there was no way for Scytheclaw to dodge or defend himself without putting himself in the range of more attacks. He looked almost panicked now, but he kept on fighting.

"Just give up!" one of the pokémon shouted to him.

Scytheclaw's eyes hardened. "_No__," _he hissed. He continued to battle hopelessly against the mob of pokémon surrounding him. Snowcrystal had no idea why the park humans and pokémon hadn't come to stop the fight yet. Were they still too distracted?

When Scytheclaw wasn't paying attention, an electrike, who had been waiting for his chance, ran up to the scizor and touched a paw to his leg. Sparks leaped over Scytheclaw as his whole body went rigid, and Snowcrystal realized that the electrike had used thunder wave. Then the whole tide of the battle changed. The pokémon were no longer trying to subdue the scizor, but were simply taunting him with small attacks while he desperately tried to swipe at any of them that came close enough whenever the paralysis could wear off for a second.

Spark glanced at Snowcrystal, a somewhat alarmed look crossing his face as the battle neared them. "Well, I'm not sure this is-"

"Stop this!" a voice cried, loud enough for several of the watching pokémon to whirl around and see who had spoken. Others however, continued to attack, just out of the furious Scytheclaw's range.

Snowcrystal had turned as well, seeing that the speaker was Nightshade, and he was looking over all the fighting pokémon – Scytheclaw included – with a stern glare. A few of the other attacking pokémon backed away once they realized their foe was not moving, leaving Scytheclaw paralyzed on the ground and glaring at them menacingly.

The pokémon who had been attacking seemed ready to turn on Nightshade when a slowking and a houndoom suddenly arrived, both wearing vests that told Snowcrystal that they must belong to those helping to keep peace in the park.

"What's going on here?" the slowking asked, and immediately, nearly every pokémon in the area pointed their hands, claws, and paws at Scytheclaw.

"He started it!" one of them exclaimed.

"He attacked my son," the feraligatr from before accused, still pointing at Scytheclaw.

The houndoom stepped up to the scizor, who glared at him through narrow eyes. "Is this true?" he asked.

"Yes," Scytheclaw replied with a hiss.

Snowcrystal couldn't help but give the scizor a shocked look. She had expected him to deny it, to put the blame on the other pokémon, but instead he had admitted to it, and was now staring at the houndoom as if he was daring him to do something about it.

The houndoom gave a frustrated sigh. "As if that other fight wasn't bad enough," he muttered, before lifting his head in a howl.

The slowking stood behind Scytheclaw as if waiting for him to make a run for it, but he didn't move, and probably couldn't, due to the paralysis. The houndoom ordered the gathering pokémon to go back to whatever they were doing, and about a minute later, a few humans and more pokémon arrived, presumably to take Scytheclaw to the park building like the trainer at the entrance had stated, but she didn't see much else, as she, Spark, and Nightshade had turned and left, baffled by the events that had taken place.

They spent the rest of the afternoon wondering what would happen when the trainers returned and if Damian would be held responsible for Scytheclaw's actions. Spark was sure that none of them would be allowed to go to the park again, leaving them to spend their days in the dismal, rocky new hideout from now on. Near the end of the afternoon, Snowcrystal and the others who had been dropped off had gathered together near the entrance, waiting for the return of the trainers.

"I knew he shouldn't have brought that idiot along," Wildflame muttered. "Now we're going to have spend our time in that rotten hole in the ground, waiting for the trainers too-"

"Not if we find something in the library," Alex replied. "If we find something about the Forbidden Attacks…find out how to stop them, we won't have to wait here anymore. We can move on."

Snowcrystal was grateful for the floatzel's optimism, as hopeless as finding something soon seemed at the moment. The rare, locked away books in the library were still a chance they could take, and if they did manage to find something, to find out who or what had created the Forbidden Attacks and if they could stop them, or even if there was another way to stop them, they could continue to move forward again, instead of simply spending day after day looking for a lead.

"That's if we can get into the library at all," Wildflame replied. "We don't know what Nightcloud's going to say or if it'll even be much help to us."

"Yeah," Alex started, "but-"

She was interrupted as Spark leapt to his feet, facing toward the entrance to the park. They all saw the trainers approaching and hurried to meet them. As soon as they stood beside their trainers, they could hear one of the park managers sternly talking to Damian about his scizor. Scytheclaw was soon returned, guarded on both sides by some of the working park pokémon, and Damian was told that his pokémon were banned from entering the park in the future. Damian hastily tried to apologize, making a big show of it, which only irritated the park workers further and they were all told to leave.

"Well, that went well," Katie muttered sarcastically as they walked through the city streets, the sun beginning to set and tinting the sky with bright orange and yellow.

"At least he didn't kill anyone," Damian replied without thinking, earning him a glare from the two younger trainers. "Wait…no! I didn't mean that he would!" he quickly said, and the other two simply turned away and kept walking.

"We're going to go to the hotel for an hour or two," Justin said after a few moments. "You can keep walking to the camp."

Damian only nodded in reply, and Katie and Justin, along with Spark and Katie's two pokémon, walked off, leaving the rest of them standing there. It was clear to the pokémon, without having to ask, that the humans had had no luck being granted permission to look at the books. After a moment of silence, Damian turned to the remaining pokémon, seeming to realize that it would look odd with him walking around with more than six, and returned Todd and Scytheclaw. He stood silent for a moment, his flareon moving to stand by his side, before he looked back at the others. "I don't want to go back just yet," he said. "Do you want to go for a walk? See parts of the city?"

Inferno leaped up in excitement, nudging Damian's legs with his head as if wanting to get going right away. Alex nodded her head, as did Redclaw and Nightshade. He then looked to Snowcrystal and Wildflame, asking them if they minded, and in answer they shook their heads.

"Eh, if it makes him happy," Wildflame muttered. "I guess I could use some time to think before we try sneaking into the library."

"_If_ we end up doing that," Redclaw reminded her, and followed Damian as the trainer set off in a random direction.

Snowcrystal was surprised to find that in the fading light, the city streets looked almost…beautiful. She had never thought she'd think such a thing about human buildings, but there was something about them that captivated her in a way. She almost felt wrong for thinking so, after hearing what humans had done to Nightshade, but she quickly reminded herself that not all humans were bad. Some were capable of great good, like the ones who were helping her, and like pokémon, each one was different.

After a little while, she realized that they had wandered to an even more beautiful area. The houses were cleaner, more intricate, and most of them very large. Most had many beautiful plants in front of them, and when Alex tried to dart into a garden, Damian stopped her, explaining that they had to be careful not to damage anything belonging to the owners.

"What is this place?" Snowcrystal asked, hurrying up to catch up to Inferno.

The flareon looked at her and smiled. "This is one of the upper class neighborhoods," he explained. "It's very pretty."

"A what?" she questioned.

"Where rich humans live," he said simply.

"Oh," she replied. "What makes a human rich?"

"Beats me."

They continued to walk, the sky now beginning to get very dark. Suddenly, Snowcrystal leapt in surprise as, in the nearest garden, dozens of multicolored lights turned on, transforming the garden into a luminous paradise like something out of one of the fantasy stories Damian sometimes read to them at the library. "Wow, that's beautiful!" she exclaimed, and for a moment she was reminded of the glowing crystals in her home cave, but she pushed the thought from her mind.

"I love coming here," Inferno was saying. "Lots of humans have gardens like that. It's been such a long time since I…"

He trailed off, for in one of the gardens, a bush rustled, and a sleek black pokémon walked out, the markings on its body giving off a glow that matched that of the lights that were starting to turn on in the rich garden it had just left.

But something was very different.

The pokémon was, quite obviously, an umbreon, but its rings weren't yellow. They weren't blue either; it wasn't even a_shiny_. They were a bright, royal purple.

The pokémon turned toward them, and Snowcrystal could see that its eyes were different too; they were a bright ice blue. The pokémon's face lit up as he saw them, and he bounded over, Damian and the rest of the group looking at the newcomer curiously as he arrived.

"Hey!" the umbreon cried as he stopped in front of Redclaw and Wildflame, his tail weaving back and forth almost like that of an excited houndour puppy. "I haven't seen you around here before. Where're you from?"

The two looked momentarily confused about the odd umbreon, but quickly shrugged it off, figuring, Snowcrystal assumed, that he must be from another land, like she was. "We're travelers," Wildflame told him, sounding annoyed. "We don't live in the city."

"Travelers?" The umbreon seemed, if possible, even more excited by this. "Where are you from? What sort of places have you been? Have you-"

"That's enough questions, thank you," Wildflame muttered before anyone else could reply. "Now if you excuse us, we'd better be going." She walked on ahead past him, and Redclaw followed, giving the oddly colored umbreon a strange look.

The stranger didn't seem to mind, and was quite content to sit there as Damian petted him and Inferno and Alex eagerly began to reply to his questions. Snowcrystal and Nightshade stood off to the side, watching as Redclaw and Wildflame waited up ahead for them, and after a moment, they told the umbreon that they had to get moving, he said his goodbyes, then left.

"That's odd," Snowcrystal said to Inferno as they walked on, glancing at the umbreon as he stared back cheerfully at them. "I didn't know there were odd-colored umbreon. The humans don't think it's weird?"

"No, of course not," Inferno replied. "The humans created them. You see," he continued, noting her look of shock, "he's one of those genetically modified pokémon. Rich humans here pay quite a lot for one. There aren't many around, as it's still a fairly new practice, but there's bound to be a lot more sooner or later and there's certainly a strong demand for them."

"Genetically modified?" Snowcrystal repeated. She'd heard about this sort of thing briefly from the books Damian and the others read, but she was still clueless about what it meant.

"Yeah," the flareon replied. "Human scientists can do all sorts of strange things. They've cloned prehistoric pokémon. They even cloned _mew_. And recently, the ones in Stonedust City begun breeding these modified pokémon to sell. They've created umbreon with all kinds of different colored rings. They have other species too. Like I said, there aren't many of them yet, but you see them around in these parts of the city sometimes."

"You mean, these humans could create their own white growlithe?" she asked hopefully, wondering whether she would be able to walk around with her natural fur colors and not attract too much attention.

"Yes, they could," Inferno replied, as if knowing what she was thinking, "but they haven't done that yet. There are no modified growlithe at all yet as far as I know. And _naturally_ strange colored pokémon, like shinies, are sought after even more than the modified ones. If they saw you with your normal colors, and there was no proof that you came from a lab, you'd be in big trouble."

"Right," she replied, disappointment stabbing her chest.

"Only a select few are allowed to sell these types of pokémon," Inferno continued. "They keep track of what new colorations they create and they aren't allowed to pass them off as natural. So…yes, I'm afraid you've still got to be careful."

Snowcrystal sighed as they carried on, and after a while they turned around and started heading back to more familiar parts of the city, calmly enjoying the cool night air as they passed the brilliantly decorated buildings. They soon arrived back at a place with towering buildings, and as they passed a street corner, a couple of adult trainers and their pokémon sneered at them. Wildflame sneered back at them, and Alex did a much less intimidating imitation, and they continued on.

"I don't like this," Wildflame muttered quietly after a moment.

"Huh?" Snowcrystal responded, looking at the houndoom in confusion.

"Staying in this city," she whispered back. "We've already had to move our camp because someone came too close. If we don't find anything in the library's hidden books, I say we go somewhere else."

"Where?" Redclaw asked, striding forward to walk beside her. "To another city?"

"I don't know," she muttered irritably, turning away from him and picking up speed until she was further ahead.

Redclaw looked confused, and was about to follow when Nightshade, who had been walking behind him, placed his claws on the arcanine's leg. "Don't," he told him, "this isn't the time to…" He trailed off, looking off to the side at the opposite street, where the two trainers they'd noticed before were watching them.

Redclaw noticed them too, and looked to Damian, who was walking blissfully, completely oblivious. The arcanine felt the fur bristle along his neck as he bared his teeth and glared straight in the trainers' direction, and the two trainers, as well as their pokémon, a vileplume and a ninetales much older looking than Rosie, glared back but sauntered away. They did not encounter the trainers again, but Redclaw stuck protectively close to Snowcrystal until they reached their new camp again. He had not liked the way those trainers had looked at them, and he wondered if their pokémon had noticed Snowcrystal's fur was dyed, as Nightcloud had. He was starting to realize that it was likely far more dangerous than they realized to take Snowcrystal into the city that way, and he wished they had simply gone back to camp. He was beginning to understand how Wildflame felt.

Once they got back to camp, the pokémon waited near the ravine for Justin and Katie to return, whispering excitedly amongst themselves about what the library could have in store. Redclaw's unease had rubbed off on Snowcrystal, and she was starting to have a bad feeling about returning to the city. Regardless, her determination to help her tribe back at the mountains made her determined to help out, despite how she might feel.

Damian had let the rest of his pokémon out while they waited, knowing that it wouldn't be long before they were meant to meet Nightcloud in the library's circular room. It was decided that only a few of them would go to speak with her, and Snowcrystal felt lucky that Damian and Arien had agreed to let her go.

Looking around the slopes of bare rock, Snowcrystal spotted Scytheclaw a ways away from the others and tentatively padded over to him. "Scytheclaw?" she asked as she approached the scizor, looking up at him warily.

He turned to give her a sharp glare. "This isn't about healing your scyther friend again, is it?" he asked, his bright eyes narrowing.

"No," she answered truthfully. "It's…I just thought it was brave of you to stand up to those pokémon in the park."

"Brave?" he responded icily, giving her a suspicious look.

"Yes," she replied, feeling a bit silly as she noticed his reaction, but continuing anyway. "I think you are brave. You don't back down even when you know you can't win. I mean, I think those pokémon thought you were just a coward who would run away if someone stood up to you. But you aren't. You still stood up to them."

Scytheclaw rolled his eyes. "This is ridiculous," he muttered. "I'm not going to do _anything_ for you, understand? I'm only helping you with this Forbidden Attack quest to search for answers for myself and help my trainer. I am not your friend, growlithe, so stop treating me like I am." With that, he turned and stalked away, heading out over the rugged rocky ground. Some of the other pokémon saw him go, but did not try to stop him, knowing that he would be back before they would make their plans for going into the library after hearing Nightcloud's words.

Snowcrystal felt a bit disappointed. She hadn't wanted to ask him anything this time. She had only wanted to be more friendly, maybe try to help some of the pokémon be more of a team, but she now realized how silly that seemed, and she had to admit, some small part of her had still been hoping he would help Stormblade.

"Ah, give it up," a voice muttered from behind her, and she turned to see Blazefang walking towards her. "He's not gonna do it."

"I wasn't-"

"Oh, please," Blazefang muttered. "Why else would you have been nice to a pokémon like that?"

"I…I don't know," she replied, feeling a bit puzzled herself after listening to his words. "I just thought…well…I'm not sure. But I really did think he was brave. Don't you think that's the sort of bravery we need to-"

"Ah, I see," Blazefang responded. "You just want him to do things for us. It's not much different."

"I…I didn't mean it like that!" she cried, but even as she said it, she began to wonder if she had. She didn't like to think she expected every pokémon she met to help her, but what if she did? "I mean, I thought-"

"Don't worry about it," Blazefang replied. "I know what you mean. That'll be all that useless bug is good for."

"_Scizor_," she corrected.

"Yeah, whatever," the houndour said with a shrug. "You know, you're always looking at the good in others. And I don't mean that as a compliment…no offense. Some pokémon are just, well…not good. Take Cyclone for example."

"I'm sure the bad things Cyclone's done certainly outweigh the good," she stated.

"Well, that's a start," Blazefang muttered. "But who cares whether Scytheclaw is brave or not? We could do without him if we had to. Please, Snowcrystal, stop thinking that every pokémon we come across is going to be some great help. We can't be too careful who we trust these days." He turned and walked back toward the edge of the ravine, near where the others were waiting.

Snowcrystal realized that he had a point, and that she couldn't blindly trust any pokémon who seemed helpful. Yet Scytheclaw was a different story. He had a Forbidden Attack, if a strange one, and that made him a part of everything they were searching for. Still, Blazefang's words had unsettled her, and she decided to put it out of her mind for the time being.

It wasn't long before Justin and Katie returned, and Katie only hesitantly decided to come with them, curious to know what the mightyena would say, but still not liking the idea of sneaking into the library. She had her azumarill by her side, Justin had Spark, and Damian had Arien. The only other pokémon who came with them were Rosie and Snowcrystal, Rosie only coming because she wanted to see Nightcloud again.

The library was almost ready to close as they walked through the doors, heading to the massive circular room where they knew Nightcloud was waiting. As they'd hoped, there were only a few people or pokémon around. They quickly made their way to the massive room they had spent so much time in over the weeks, and as they'd expected, the mightyena was waiting for them in the center of the room, sprawled out on one of the chairs.

"Good," she stated as they arrived, leaping down from the chair and running over to them. "You're here."

"Nightcloud!" Rosie cried, running ahead of the others to meet up with the mightyena, whose eyes widened in shock as she recognized her.

Snowcrystal watched the two as they excitedly exchanged words and ran circles around a group of chairs, talking rapidly back and forth as they play-fought each other, just as if they had been friends for far longer than Rosie had described. Beside her, Arien folded his arms impatiently, while the trainers and Spark all watched with much happier expressions.

"So, where are the books hidden, Nightcloud?" Rosie asked as the two walked back toward the main group.

"Shh…not so loud," she replied. "There are still pokémon here. Look, let's go in one of the hallways. It'll be quieter. I only told you to come here because it would be easy for you to find me."

"Hey, we've been coming here for weeks!" Spark interjected. "I think we know where everything is!"

The mightyena only shrugged, and they followed her into one of the side hallways, and then to a secluded place near a turn in the narrow passage. Nightcloud sat down in front of a painting of Ho-oh rising from a writhing mass of flames. "Okay," she began, "listen carefully." She needn't have asked, because every pokémon present was listening, and the humans were impatiently waiting for it to begin so they could get a translation from Damian. "Okay," Nightcloud continued, satisfied that their attention was on her words, "the books are hidden in a very small room. You must first go to the room where the battle strategies books are. There's a door behind the large lugia painting there. It's locked, but it won't be hard to open with a pokémon attack. They aren't exactly too worried about anyone finding it. They assume no one knows and they're busy worrying about protecting the rest of the library. Go through the tunnel that winds through the walls and you should come into another room. It's small and has a low ceiling because it exists between a room on the first floor and a room on the second. You'll probably see a lot of old books there – the workers in the library like to take them up there to read in private sometimes – but they're not what you're looking for. Look around and you'll see a door that's somewhat hidden, but there isn't much in the room and it's not hard to find. Open it and there will be a short hallway, then you'll reach the door that leads to the hidden room with the books. I'm not sure how hard it is to open without a key; I've never seen the door to the room itself. But that's how you get to it."

"Hm…" Spark began to muse as Damian relayed the information to Katie and Justin. "There aren't any…high tech security devices guarding this thing, are there?"

"In the secret rooms?" she replied. "Only the locks. You see, like I said, they know that only a few people know about them, so they won't be expecting that. Your problem, however, is going to be the rest of the library. You see, they _are_ worried about books in the main library being stolen. They take it seriously…because if a book isn't checked out normally, they can't find the person who has it if it isn't returned, and there are many books here that are very valuable, even in the normal sections of the library."

"So, are there humans patrolling the library at night?" Snowcrystal asked, remembering her terrifying experience in the library at night once before.

"The janitors used to," Nightcloud replied, "though recently they've started cleaning during the evenings when there are still visitors. It's unfortunate, as they'd be much easier to avoid, but you won't have that window of opportunity. You see…something else guards the library at night, and now, they do it immediately after closing."

Spark and Snowcrystal gave each other uneasy looks. "And that thing that guards the library would be…" Spark began.

"Ghost pokémon," Nightcloud replied. "There's only one camera near the library entrance but they have eyes everywhere else. You're going to have to find a way to distract them before you try to navigate the library."

"Yeah, sounds _real_simple," Spark muttered sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, but that's all I can tell you," Nightcloud replied.

"Thank you," Snowcrystal told her, and the mightyena smiled.

"I wish you good luck," she replied, standing up. "I must find my trainer now. Remember, sneak in through a side window…have the ones who will cause a distraction go first…you can't be caught on the camera. But at the same time…don't make the mistake of thinking that being caught by the ghost pokémon is any better."

With that, the mightyena trotted out of the hallway, and the group was left with her ominous warning. Snowcrystal looked up at Damian after he finished explaining to the other humans. Katie looked back at him in shock, while Justin looked on with eagerness. They waited for Damian to speak, and as he turned and led them toward the end of the hallway, he said, "Let's get back to the ravine. We need to make a plan fast."

* * *

_Author's Note:_

Like I said earlier, the plot-related stuff ended up having to be moved to the next chapter because this was turning out too long. I think it's a good thing in the end, because the events of the next chapter will likely be longer than I thought as well.

The purple ringed umbreon and other genetically altered pokémon in Stonedust were actually inspired by a conversation Flareonwolf once had with someone on DA. This person was talking about people's pokesonas and insisted that umbreons that had colors other than blue or yellow rings were "breaking the rules" of pokémon. Disregarding the fact that she was completely missing the point (as pokesonas aren't always meant to be realistic or serious, and in the end, they don't have to be), it got me thinking about these "rules of pokémon" she seemed to be talking about. Were these boundaries really where she insisted they were? I decided to think about it and find out. I soon thought of the idea of having human-created altered colors. The pokémon world has shown that scientists can do pretty crazy things with pokémon, such as cloning them from fossils, creating Mewtwo, etc. So why not create ones with weird colors? When I thought of this, I assumed this would – in the timeline of most stories I'd write – be a fairly new practice, probably with several pokémon who ended up with weird colors in the wrong places or mismatched rings after they evolved before the humans could perfect it, and scientists would need a good incentive to do it, such as a lot of buyers who would pay large sums of money for one. It then suddenly occurred to me that Stonedust City from The Path of Destiny would be a perfect place for these hypothetical scientists to sell these altered pokémon, and I thought it would be an interesting subject to explore, possibly as a separate short story or in PoD itself. Either way, I thought it would be an interesting thing for the characters to come across to show them a bit more of what the city is like.


End file.
